Secrets Revealed
by SunaT.U
Summary: Konohagakure's best kept secrets are revealed. Could an entire person really be kept secret for so many years? Kakashi H. is one of the only people who knows the truth about what's been hidden away from the rest of the world. That will soon change. As Konoha 11 learn more about how deep this all goes, they have to keep history from repeating itself. "Do you want to be like Sasuke?"
1. Secrets Revealed

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters from either series. However, I do own all of my original characters.

* * *

**Chapter 1:**

**Secrets Revealed**

**During the Fourth Great Ninja War**

Part of the Medical unit was dispatched at 08:00 hours on the second day into the war, to search for survivors among the fallen shinobi who didn't have help getting to where the Medical unit had been stationed. Five members among the unit were to scout out the outskirts of the battlefield.

One of these members followed a breadcrumb trail of white Zetsu bodies to a cliff that appeared to border a small town that hung just below, in the valley. Along the cliff there was a gap a few yards wide separating the edge of the cliff and the breadcrumb trail. Further up along the cliff, there was a point where the cliff jets out, allowing for more room between the edge of the forest and the rocky drop-off point. In that space was where he found the end of the breadcrumb trail.

He walked up to a girl laying flat on her back, eyes closed. She had long, light purple hair that hung in gentle waves down to her mid-waist. The blood underneath her, on her clothing and staining the corners of her mouth was completely dry. While her left arm was at her side, her right arm was placed over her heart with a white ribbon looped around the index finger of her limp hand.

Looking around he noticed about a dozen white Zetsu bodies laying dead in front of the girl. Also, he spotted a black headband with the symbol of the leaf village engraved on it.

_A leaf shinobi headband... is it her's? Everyone else received a new headband when all five nations decided to fight together, so why would she wear a leaf shinobi headband? Should I even bring her back to the medical base? _He thought to himself.

He knelt next to her body and placed two fingers to her neck.

_She has a pulse. _He looked back over to the headband and then sighed. _I can't just leave someone to die._

With that, he grabbed the headband before sliding one arm under her back and the other under her knees. He stood and pivoted to take off in the direction of the medical base. Seeing as how no one else was in the area, he decided to take her the entire way there himself.

All that was left behind was a red handkerchief that then blew off the edge of the cliff disappearing into the valley below.

* * *

**Two and a Half Years Earlier**

_Tomorrow's the day. I guess I'll have to be prepared. _Kakashi Hatake was thinking to himself while walking around the Hidden Leaf Village with his hands stuffed into his pockets. _Guess I'll just go to the Hokage's office now. I wonder how much Lady Tsunade's heard about her._

At the Hokage's office, Lady Tsunade was ordering Sakura Haruno around, who had been her apprentice for a little over a year now. Shizune, Tsunade's subordinate, was looking surprisingly relaxed and almost smug do to the fact that Sakura was doing most of the work she would normally be doing at the moment.

There was a knock on the door that stopped Tsunade mid-sentence.

"Shizune," she said sternly without looking up a Shizune. "you did tell me that I didn't have any appointments left today, didn't you?"

All previous relaxation had instantly left Shizune and her usual tension reappeared. "Ah, of course Lady Tsunade!" She said as she reached for the schedule papers on the desk and began rapidly flipping through them. "You shouldn't have any appointments left today at all!"

Tsunade leaned back in her chair. "Well then, let's just see who it is. Come in!" she hollered loudly.

Kakashi opened the door and stepped into the room without bothering to close the door behind him.

"Kakashi, is there something you want?" Tsuande sat up straighter.

"Actually yes, I wish to discuss something important with you." He turned to the other two women in the room, "Sakura, Shizune, I apologize but I have to ask you to leave."

The two women just blinked at him. Tsunade folded her hands, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her desk. She shot him her classic, piercing gaze, "And why would the two of them have to leave? I trust both of them completely."

"Because this matter is completely top secret." Kakashi seemed completely serious and was unshifting under Tsunade's gaze.

"Very well then," she turned. "Sakura, go over to the hospital and see what you can do to help out for now. Shizune, go and accompany her."

"Yes Lady Tsunade," they both bowed and left the room closing the door behind them.

After taking a few steps down the hall, they turned to each other and nodded. They both swiftly tiptoed back and pressed their ears against the door.

The voices on the other side of the door were so hushed they couldn't make out what was being said. Then they heard, "What?!" followed shortly by the sound of Tsunade slamming her hands against her desk.

"Why haven't I heard about this before?!"

In a more audible voice than before, Kakashi replied, "Eh, well, being the Hokage, I had assumed the village elders would have told you."

"What about last year?! Why didn't you ask back then?!"

"Well it wasn't long after the incident with Orochimaru and because of that, we would have needed to take shinobi away from their regular duty to guard her."

_Her? What are they talking about? Some girl? And if it's something so top secret, wouldn't Lady Tsunade be the first one to know about it? _Sakura was trying to come to a conclusion based off of what she had heard.

Lady Tsunade sighed loudly. "So the day is tomorrow, is it?"

"Yes."

"Well then fine, how long has it been?"

"It's been almost 8 years."

"So you'll need me to prepare a hospital room where only authorized personnel can get in?"

"Yes, but it will also take two people to preform the jutsu, it's impossible for one person to do it alone."

Tsunade blinked at this, "The third Hokage sure was thorough with the details of this."

"Actually, the hardest part is getting there."

"Alright, but we'll do it early in the morning while most people are still asleep. I'll expect you here at 4:30 in the morning, and this is something that you can't be late to," she said with a fierce look in her eyes.

"That early huh? Fine then, I'll make it." Kakashi didn't groan, which surprised both Tsunade and the two eavesdroppers on the other side of the door.

"Good, I'll have Sakura prepare the room, and of course I won't tell her any more than she needs to know."

_Any more than I need to know?! What, so I can't be trusted with anything important?! So much for being trusted completely!_

Both Sakura and Shizune's eyes widened as they heard Kakashi say, "Thank you Lady Hokage," and then footsteps headed towards the door.

Tsunade also got up from her chair to walk towards the door. Sakura and Shizune bolted away from the door, down the hallway, out the building and to the hospital. Tsunade came shortly after to have Sakura turn a room with a padlock that was meant for autopsies, into a suitable room for a _living_ patient.

* * *

**October 11th, 4:30am**

The Hokage's office door was left open, so Kakashi stepped in quietly. He had made sure no one was following him by transporting himself directly from his apartment to the building that housed the Hokage's office.

The room was dark without the lights on, and seeing was next to impossible. "So you did make it on time," Tsunade's dark figure was leaning against the front side of her desk, arms crossed.

She unfolded her arms and began to walk towards the door. "Let's go, you have to lead the way considering the fact that no one bothered to tell me where this place is." Kakashi could sense the frustration in her voice.

He walked back out of the room having her follow to the side of him. "I expect that you'll want the details behind all of this?"

"Of course I will," Kakashi swore he could hear her grit her teeth hard.

"Alright, well I'll tell you the important things along the way." They exited the building together and Kakashi led them in the direction of the carved faces of the Hokages.

Kakashi began to speak again as soon as they began to climb the stairs up to the Hokage faces. "The third Hokage only agreed to this when the village elders had convinced him that it was for her own protection. Once he had been convinced, he took every precaution he could think of."

"Is the entrance in one of the carvings?"

"Well sort of, the way to get to the entrance is up there. No one knows where the actual location is, not even the people who built it." They entered the face of the second Hokage into an open chamber with only one exit: the same place they had entered.

"How could they not have known where they were?"

Before answering, Kakashi walked up to the wall opposite the entrance and preformed multiple hand seals and then pressed both hands against the wall. Part of the wall crumbled into a powdery sand and fell to the floor.

The hole in the wall that had formed was shaped like a round edged door. Kakashi stepped through the opening and took out a lighter from his pouch. He then lit a lantern that had been sitting on the floor inside the newly discovered chamber.

"Well, the only way to get there is by using a reverse summoning jutsu on yourself, and you need the proper scroll to get to the right location."

"So then there's a scroll hidden somewhere in the side of this mountain?"

"Exactly," Kakashi motioned for Tsunade to step through.

Once she was in front of him, he handed her the lantern and turned back to the hole and made some more hand seals. He pressed both hands on the sand and the sand collected itself back into the solid rock wall it had been before.

He took the lantern back and lead Tsunade down a rock staircase. At the bottom of the staircase was a thick steel door with a padlock combination. Kakashi punched in a rather lengthy combination before the door slid open.

"Only the Hokage, the village elders, Danzo, myself, the man who delivers the supplies, and the staff that take care of her know about the scroll, let alone where it is." Kakashi walked inside the small, square room with steel walls, and a steel ceiling and floor.

Tsunade followed him in to find a small, wooden table in the center of the room with a large scroll rolled up on top. She could tell the scroll had some sort of seal on it to prevent people who don't know how to break it from using it.

"The staff are all former members of the ANBU and they are all women," Kakashi stated before forming hand seals. The scroll's seal disappeared and he unraveled it to a certain point and spread it across the table.

"I understand why they would all be women, but why would they all be former members of the ANBU?" Tsunade questioned.

"She doesn't have a way to defend herself, so the third Hokage decided it would be best to staff the place with personnel who can ensure her safety. Now, all we need to do to get there is preform reverse summoning jutsus on ourselves. I'll go first incase someone is waiting on the other side. But close the door before coming."

Tsunade obeyed and closed the door which locked instantly. Kakashi bit into his thumb, made some hand seals and called out "Reverse Summoning jutsu," before he pressed his hands to the circle on the scroll and vanished, leaving the lantern on the table.

Tsunade then did the same and arrived in a room with a low ceiling and rock walls. Kakashi pulled out a piece of paper that had a map on it.

"Through that doorway is a maze we have to get through." He pointed at a doorway that appeared to have a hallway with multiple connecting hallways on the other side.

"So you have a map? Then lead the way," Tsunade started to walk towards the doorway.

"Ahh!" As soon as Tsunade stepped through the doorway, her foot sank into the floor so that she could no longer see her own foot. She quickly reacted by pulling her foot back into the room with no trouble at all. "What just happened?"

"The floor you see is an illusion, the real floor is actually further down than it appears. There's a hidden step down at the edge of the doorway. It's a way of tracking people's movements within the maze. When people walk around in the maze the illusion acts as a sensor, it's the same thing with the walls and the ceiling too," he said as he calmly stepped into the hallway and then placed his hand through one of the walls before it hit something solid. "See?"

"Well this is elaborate," Tsunade stated before stepping through the doorway once again.

Kakashi led the way through the maze. It took a while to get to the other side and when they reached the end, there was a woman standing tall, waiting for them.

"Identify yourselves," the woman ordered.

"Kakashi Hatake of the Hidden Leaf, jounin," Kakashi stated without hesitation.

"Kakashi Hatake huh?" The woman pulled out a slip of paper. "That name is excepted. What is your ninja registration number?"

Kakashi then recited it with ease and the woman cleared him for entry.

"And you are?" The woman turned towards Tsunade.

"How am I?! I'm the Hokage!" she yelled in irritation.

The woman looked to Kakashi for confirmation and Kakashi nodded to her. She bowed her head apologetically, "I beg your pardon Lady Hokage, we have been down here for over seven years, none of us have ever seen you before."

Tsunade sighed, "I see, that's fine then."

"Thank you Lady Hokage," she bowed again. "Right this way."

They followed her through the door behind her and through a series of hallways, passing other women and places like a cafeteria and what looked like living corders.

"This is the room she's in, I'll leave you to it." The woman bowed once more before leaving.

Kakashi spotted the chair opposite the door with a towel, a robe and a pair of shoes sitting on top.

He grabbed them and handed them over to Tsunade. "You go in first, there will be a cylindrical tank. The control pad will be to the right of it. Press the green button, the controls will ask you if you want to drain the water, select yes. Once the water has been drained, the tank should open automatically. Disconnect her from the IV and whatever else she's connected to. Got it?"

Tsunade nodded in confirmation and then opened the door to a fairly large room with a tank in the center. She closed the door behind her.

As she approached the tank, she could she a young, teenaged girl sitting at the bottom, legs crossed and back straight. Her eyes were closed and she was held to the bottom by a strap that went over her legs. Her arms were out in front of her resting her hands, palms facing upward, on her knees. Her hair was a light purple and its waves were floating throughout the tank.

Tsunade set the towel, robe and shoes down on the floor next to her and then proceeded to do exactly as Kakashi had instructed.

When the water had been drained, the girl's back stood straight as if the water had nothing to do with her erect posture. She removed the IV, and the oxygen mask as well as other tubes and whatnot.

She dried the girl off with the towel and then fasten the robe around her body. She walked back over to the door to let in a patient Kakashi.

"She isn't asleep, she is in a state of meditation that she can't wake up from on her own, but she is conscious. That is why we have to preform a jutsu in order to wake her up." Kakashi then walked Tsunade through how to preform the two-personed jutsu.

They made the proper hand seals and recited the jutsu. The girl fell over limp.

She slowly opened her eyes. They were a strange silvery color with big, dark black pupils. "Ka-kashi... Hatake?" She spoke in a voice barely audible.

"Happy birthday," Kakashi replied.

She gave him a warm smile that made her eyes disappear.

"I brought you something," Kakashi said as he helped the girl sit up and he leaned her against the side of the tank. He reached into his pouch and pulled something out and placed it in her hand.

The girl gasped slightly, "Where did you find it?" In her hand was a necklace with a small wooden dragonfly painted a light blue.

"It was exactly where you said you had left it," Kakashi smiled under his mask at her.

"You mean no one moved it after all this time?" She put the necklace over her head and around her neck.

"Guess not."

Realizing that she hadn't shown her gratitude yet, she smiled up at him again. "Thank you!"

"No problem," he then reached for the shoes behind Tsunade and gave them to her. She slipped them onto her feet.

"Am I going home now?"

"Not yet, we have to take you to the hospital first. After sitting for so long, you won't be able to walk on your own for a while." Kakashi picked her up, "So for now, just take it easy."

The girl looked over at Tsunade who had been fairly quiet. "Who are you?"

"My name is Tsunade and I'm the 5th Hokage." Tsunade tried to disregard the girl's poor manners for not offering her own name first, "What's your name?"

"Tonbo, and I'm not even a genin yet, but I will be soon."

"So you want to be a ninja? Being a ninja isn't easy, it's a hard life style," Tsunade explained.

"I know that, but all my brothers are ninjas, so I'll be one too," Tonbo stated firmly.

"Come on, you can't do anything until after you recover, so let's go, we still have to get to the hospital without drawing any attention," Kakashi started to walk out the door with Tonbo in his arms.

The woman from before was waiting outside the door, "I brought the scroll that will take you back to the Leaf Village. Everyone is getting ready to leave, so you should go back now if you don't want to wait in a line." The woman handed the scroll over to Tsunade.

"Thank you," Kakashi told her.

"Also, sometime after I get back I'll come and visit the hospital if that's okay. I'd like to tell you something about what happened while she was here."

"Very well then, but you're more likely to find me at my office, you can stop by there anytime you'd like," Tsunade replied.

Tonbo knew exactly what the woman was talking about but chose to stay quiet. There was no need for her to say anything.

"Alright Kakashi, I'll go first this time so I can help Tonbo on the other side."

Kakashi nodded to Tsunade and she bit her thumb, formed her hand seals, and pressed her hand to the circle of the open scroll saying "Reverse Summoning jutsu," before dissappearing.

Kakashi preformed the reverse summoning jutsu on Tonbo and then himself. They all arrived in the same steel room they had started in and Tsunade grabbed the lantern off the table before unlocking the door and climbing up the steps.

When they finally emerged outside the second Hokage's carved face, dawn was approaching and the stars were beginning to fade.

It was still early enough for most people to not be roaming the streets. However, when they got to the hospital, Sakura was already there.

"Lady Tsunade, I have the room ready," Sakura started to walk in the direction of the room.

"Sakura, I want you to be the nurse for this patient. It will be easier than what you're used to but she's about your age so I'm hoping you can be company to her," Tsunade told Sakura.

Sakura looked back at the girl in Kakashi's arms, "What will I do as her nurse? She looks healthy to me."

"You'll just be giving her steroids and physical therapy," Tsunade informed her.

"Steroids?!" Sakura said a bit loudly.

Tsunade knew that she couldn't tell Sakura everything but didn't want to lie to her own apprentice, so she tried to be vague without giving any crucial information away, "Well... she hasn't been walking around for long enough that she has muscle degeneration. In order for her to be able to walk again, her body will need help to grow her muscles back."

Sakura's expression went from shock and curiosity, to plan annoyance, "So I'm going to have to teach a teenager how to walk?"

Tonbo's eyes narrowed at Sakura's back, "I still know how to walk," her eyes fell to the floor and softened, "my muscles will just need help to get to the way the were, so that they can carry me like they used to."

At this Sakura turned her head back at her. They both stared at each other for a moment, and then Sakura returned her eyes forward and no one said a word the rest of the way to the room.

The room was in a separate part of the building than the rest of the patients' rooms. Sakura punched in the combination for the padlock before turning the handle to open the double doors.

When Sakura flipped on the light switch everyone went inside. There were no windows seeing as how the room was an autopsy room. There was a lot of counter space and a large stainless steel sink. All of the equipment had been moved out. A bed that looked out of place had been wheeled in along with two armchairs. It was suitable enough to temporarily house a hospital patient, although it did still have a stainless steel dissection table in the middle of the room attached to the non-carpeted floor.

Kakashi set Tonbo down on the bed.

"Sakura, you'll start her on her medication with her dinner the day you have it ready, and I expect you to prepare it yourself. To know the amount she'll need you'll have to do a full body examination as well as an MRI. But for this morning, let her rest and when she wakes up keep her company." said Tsunade.

_Oh so she's calling it medication now? What a joke! _Sakura thought to herself. "Why do you want me to just keep her company when she wakes up, shouldn't I do something more productive?"

"She hasn't had many people to talk to in a long time, and it'd be nice for her to talk to someone her age again," Kakashi answered.

_What on earth is Kakashi-sensei talking about? This is getting weirder and weirder. How does any of this make sense anyway?! _Sakura was irritated at the fact that they were both avoiding answering her questions straightly.

"Just start working on all of the other stuff tomorrow," Tsunade added.

"Alright that's fine, for now I'll see if I can do anything else to help out in the rest of the hospital." Sakura moved back towards the doors and motioned them out, "My patient needs rest."

Tsunade walked out the doors, but on his way over, Kakashi stopped and turned back to Tonbo. In the time during everyone's conversation, Tonbo had taken her shoes off, placed them on the floor beside her bed and already pulled the covers over her.

"Before I forget," Kakashi walked back over to her. "I have this for you as well," he reached back into his pouch once again and pulled out a white handkerchief and gave it to her. "I know we still don't have a solution to your problem yet, so I thought for now this could be useful."

Remembering her unintended rudeness earlier, the first thing she said this time was, "Thank you, I guess this will help. I never would have thought of it."

"Good, I'll come and visit you some time tomorrow."

"Okay."

Kakashi smiled at her, making his eyes disappear. Then he turned to leave.

"Without any windows, it will be dark in here no matter what time of day it is if I turn the lights off. If you're going to sleep, do you want the lights off?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, sure," Tonbo replied.

Sakura turned the lights off and closed the door. Tonbo heard the door lock and she suddenly felt trapped.

It wasn't until around noon that Sakura finally came back. She was dreading having to make small talk to a stranger that had something to do with something top secret enough that no one would tell her about it.

When she opened the door and turned on the lights, she saw the girl lying with her eyes wide open, staring up at the ceiling.

She slowly turned her head to look at Sakura standing still in the doorway. "Hi," was all she said.

Sakura stared for a moment without speaking but then woke herself up and forced out a "Hi," in response.

She then began walking over to the hospital bed. "I brought you lunch," she said as she waited for Tonbo to sit up before placing the tray on the girl's lap.

"Have you already eaten?"

"Oh, yeah I already ate," Sakura was tying her hardest to keep smiling. Everything about this was completely awkward, but as far as Sakura could tell, Tonbo had no clue that she was supposed to feel awkward about all of this. She just sat there while she ate her food in the ever long silence.

"So... my name is Sakura Haruno," she said to break the silence.

"I know," Tonbo stated bluntly without looking up at her. "The Hokage said your name enough times, plus you call Kakashi 'sensei' too."

"So then, you already know that Kakashi was my sensei?"

"Yeah. My name's Tonbo by the way," she still didn't look up from her food at Sakura.

"Oh so... is that your given name?" Sakura felt she had to ask because she had never heard that name belong to a girl.

"Yeah, I know, it's a weird name."

"Oh, no. I didn't mean it like that or anything," Sakura put her hands up and shook her head.

"It's okay, I used to hate my name 'cause other kids used to make fun of me for it, but I actually like it now." She looked up at the ceiling before continuing.

"I remember this one time, me and two of my brothers were walking around my old neighborhood. There was this kid who was a year older than me, who always used to make fun of me for anything he could think of. When he saw me walking, he called from behind me, 'Hey Tonbo!' I stopped walking and turned around towards him. Then he said to me, 'You know, I've always thought Tonbo was a nice name, for a boy!' Both of my brothers looked confused, neither of them had seen me being made fun of like that before. And maybe it was because they were there, and I didn't want them to think I was weak, but I stood my ground and told him, 'It's not a boy's name, it's _my_ name!' That was the first time I had ever stood up to him, and he looked surprised. He was so shocked that he just stood there without saying anything. It had only been a few months since I moved away, and I think he expected me to act the same way I used to. Ever since that day, I decided to be proud of my own name. I decided that it was my name, and that's what mattered."

"Hm," Sakura looked down at her hands thinking about the story Tonbo had just told her. "Doesn't 'Tonbo' mean dragonfly?"

At this, Tonbo turned and looked at Sakura. "Yes, it does."

"Well then it's a good name," Sakura flashed her a polite smile.

"Thanks," Tonbo flashed one back.

There was another silence and Tonbo went back to eatting.

"So, Kakashi-sensei said that you haven't had very many people to talk to," Sakura decided she wanted information.

Tonbo kind of chuckled at this, "What he really meant by that is that _he's _the only person I've talked to in years."

Sakura wasn't sure what to think when she heard this. "_He _is?"

"Yeah, the reason he conveniently left that part out was because he knew you would ask why."

"Well who wouldn't ask why?"

"Sorry, but I can't tell you why."

"Oh really, why is that?"

"Because it's a secret, I'm not allowed to tell you, and neither is Kakashi."

"Well then is Lady Tsunade allowed to tell me? If she trusts me enough that is."

"No, not even her."

"But if she isn't, who is? No one has more authority than she does."

"Well the Hokage before her does," Tonbo's statement took Sakura by surprise.

"What do you mean?"

Tonbo took a minute before she replied, "You know, it's best if you don't get involved in this, they'll tell you anything you need to know, but for now, they just want to protect everyone."

Sakura crossed her arms and leaned back into one of the armchairs. "Well then where were you before you were brought here?"

"I don't know exactly where I was, but I was far away."

That answer meant nothing to Sakura and it just furthered her frustration. "How can you not know where you were?"

"No one told me where I was," she said with easement.

Sakura sighed, "Then why were you brought here?"

"It's my birthday today. Every year for my birthday, Kakashi always asked if I could come back here. This was the first year the Hokage said yes," she responded.

"Oh, well then happy birthday," Sakura did know anything else to say. "Come to think of it, yesterday was Naruto's birthday," Sakura thought out loud.

"Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Huh?" Sakura turned to her.

"The jinchuuriki child?"

"Yeah, but how did you-"

"There's a reason for that you know."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you see, I was born about a week early. The night Uzumaki was born, the nine tails attacked the Leaf Village."

"Yeah, I already know that."

"All the loud crashing sounds scared my mom into labor that night, and I was born early in the morning."

"Wow, I didn't realize that that kind of thing happened, but it makes sense," Sakura said thoughtfully.

Tonbo finished eatting, "Thank you for lunch." She smiled a real smile at Sakura this time.

Sakura couldn't help but smile back, "You're welcome!" She stood up and took the tray from Tonbo. She walked to the doors, "I'll come back with dinner later, would you like the lights off again?"

"Sure, there isn't much else to do in a hospital other than sleep anyway."

With that, Sakura switched the light off and closed the door.

* * *

A/N: Okay, so this was originally the first three chapters but since they were so short on their own and because my recent chapters have been a lot longer, I decided to combine them and let you meet Tonbo in the first chapter! :D Read and Review!


	2. Secrets Revealed:The Presence

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden! I only own the original characters and the plot.

* * *

**Chapter 2:**

**Secrets Revealed: The Uchiha Slaughtering/The Presence  
**

**One Week Later**

Sakura was carrying a dinner tray that also had Tonbo's "medication" on it, through the hallways, down to the autopsy room. Her frustration with her patient had grown a bit more each day.

_Ugh! She never gives me anymore information about what's going on, she avoids the subject completely and just talks about her past! We start the same cycle every day!_

As she neared her destination, she saw Kakashi leaving Tonbo's room. _He's been visiting her everyday now. I wonder what they talk about. Actually, never mind, they're both in the 'loop', so I'm sure they talk about everything they'll never tell me. _She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, hey Sakura," Kakashi waved and gave her a smile.

"Kakashi-sensei, what is with Tonbo?! The first day she came here and we talked, she got more and more open with me, or so I thought! But every day it's like she starts over with me and treats me like a stranger! It's the same pattern everyday, first there are always plenty of awkward silences, followed by me trying my best to break that silence and to get her to talk to me! Then she'll tell me some completely irrelevant story about her and her brothers! Why does she have to do that?!" Sakura panted for a short while after saying so much.

Kakashi put his hands up in front of him as if to defend himself, "Sakura, just calm down, I think you need t-"

She cut him off, "Calm down?! Why should I do that, she's been playing the same game for a week now and I can't just put up with it anymore!"

Kakashi sighed, _turning more into Tsunade everyday,_ he thought to himself.

"Sakura, do you remember who was around you when Lady Hokage told you to keep Tonbo company?" He didn't wait for her to answer, "The first time she mentioned it to you was in the hallway, and I was carrying Tonbo. You didn't seem enthusiastic about it then. The second time was in the room with Tonbo sitting on the hospital bed. You acted like she wasn't even there and you asked the Hokage if you should do something more productive. Do you really think that after that, she would want to talk to you? She saw you being given an order. So when you walk in that room, she isn't thinking about you wanting to talk to her, she's thinking about you fulfilling your duty."

Sakura didn't make eye-contact with Kakashi, none of that had even crossed her mind before.

"I think that the way she's acting towards you might just be her way of helping you fulfill your duty and just that. She doesn't like to get close to people, if she feels that she could be hurt all too easily," Kakashi was stern with her.

Sakura felt bad now. What would she do if she was in that situation? At least Tonbo seemed to be nice to her. Distant, yes, but never mean.

Sakura was looking down at her feet. "Well then, I-" she looked up at Kakashi with new decisiveness written on her face. "I think I'll talk to her."

"Good," Kakashi smiled and step out from in front of the doors. But before she went inside, he continued, "Just remember, if you don't offer her something about yourself, you'll never get any closer to her. Just like with anyone, one-sided conversations never get very far."

Sakura nodded and then opened the door and went inside. The lights had been left on and Tonbo was sitting up with her attention on a puzzle book. Sakura figured Kakashi must have brought it for her to pass the time.

"Hi Tonbo, I brought you your dinner," Sakura put on a smile and walked over to her.

Tonbo set her puzzle book down to take the tray.

Sakura sat down in an armchair, Tonbo wasn't looking at her. _It's starts the same way every time. _Sakura thought with a sigh.

"Tonbo... I was thinking, maybe we could be friends?"

Hearing this, Tonbo set her chopsticks down on her tray and turned to look straight at Sakura.

* * *

**At the Hokage's Office**

There was a knock on the Hokage's door.

"Come in!" Tsunade hollered.

In entered the former ANBU member Tsunade had met while going to release Tonbo.

"Good afternoon Lady Hokage," the woman bowed politely.

"Oh, it's you. Did you come to tell me about what happened while Tonbo was being kept there?"

"Yes I have," she looked up at Tsunade. "For almost two years, nothing ever really happened. Everything was quite normal. But there was an incident once when she was 8 years old."

Tsunade folded her hands and let her elbows rest on her desk, "Okay, continue."

"It was late in the evening and almost everyone had finished eating their dinners. I was one of the few still eating in the cafeteria at the time. All of the alarms started going off so the first thing I did was duck under the table to be ready for any intruders. I made my way over to the door and heard people in the hallway saying that everything was malfunctioning. That's when all the lights began exploding and going out. It was pitch dark and no one could see anything. But when I looked down the hallway I saw a strange green glow coming from the room Tonbo was being kept in."

"A green glow?" Tsunade intrupted.

"Yes, so I walked slowly down the hallway until I was next to the doorway with my back against the wall. I had to make sure that she was safe, that was my mission. So I squatted down low and peered around the corner. What I saw shocked me."

"What was it?"

"It was her. So I walked into the room to look at her up close. The green glow was coming from what looked like tattoos all over her body. They were all different symbols, I don't remember what they said in particular, but they were all glowing a bright, pale green. The tank had been drained and it was open. She was still in the same position she had always been in and it didn't look like she had moved at all. But what shocked me even more..." she closed her eyes with a sad looked on her face. "was that she was crying. She was completely still, and didn't move at all, but tears were streaming down her face nonetheless."

"She was... crying?" Tsunade seemed surprised.

"When everything stopped, the tattoos that were all over her body, just disappeared as if they had never even been there to begin with. It wasn't until later the next morning that we were told what had happened. The third Hokage himself came to explain everything. It was then that we learned a great deal of top secret information about her. First of all, the pale green glow was actual the color of her chakra and those symbols were a part of a sealing jutsu someone had put on her chakra. That someone wanted her chakra to be sealed away so that she wouldn't be able to use it anymore. But the seal was incomplete and because of this, the symbols were still all over her body. When she uses enough chakra, it leaks out from the seal, resulting in the green glow I saw. In other words, she was the one who caused all of that chaos."

"Is that why they locked her up in the tank down there?" Tsuande asked with a bit of concern on her face.

"I was never told the answer to that. But I don't think that's the reason, but only because of what we were told next. Can you guess what night that was?"

Tsunade only looked at her.

"That night was the night of the Uchiha slaughtering."

Tsunade's mouth dropped open.

"What's even more is that the time that all of this happened was about the same as the estimated time the slaughtering began."

"Impossible," Tsunade whispered.

"So you know what I think? I think that somehow, she knew. She knew exactly what was going on. I think she was desperately trying to communicate with us. I think she was trying to warn us what was going on. But she had no way to tell us. She was frozen, so all she could do, was cry."

* * *

**Two Weeks Later**

Tonbo was sitting up in her hospital bed nearly finished with her third puzzle book. Despite the fact that Sakura came by more often and stayed to talk with her longer, she still would get bored with all the time she spent in the same dark room, staring at the same plain walls.

She heard the door unlock and she snapped her head over to the doorway which opened to reveal Kakashi with two thick books and a folder full of papers in his arm.

"Kakashi!" she beamed at him.

"Yo," he smiled back at her. He sat down in one of the armchairs next to her bed and set the books and folder down in his lap.

"What are all of those?" Tonbo set her puzzle book and pen down at her side.

"Well, this morning I finished looking through all the public records in the library for a record of someone who possesses the same abilities as you."

"So you found something?" she looked curiously at the all the parchment in his lap.

"Actually, I couldn't find anything about such a person. But, I did find somethings that you might think are interesting," Kakashi grabbed one of the thick books and flipped to a marked page. He handed the book over to Tonbo.

She took the book a began reading through the script on the page. "This looks like all the names of the students that were in my class at the ninja academy," Tonbo looked back up at Kakashi for him to explain.

"Yes, it is. Do you see your name there?" he asked without looking up at her.

She looked back down and skimmed the entire page once, twice... three times. "Well I technically never graduated, so it would make sense that my name wouldn't be on the list."

"That list is a list of all the names of the students who were ever enrolled in the academy, whether they ever ended up graduating or not."

"Okay, so the record of me attending the academy is gone."

"Right, but there's more," he grabbed the second book and flipped it open to a marked page.

He handed the book to her. "This is the official village census from the year you were five. You'll find your name isn't in there either."

She searched for her name anyway but to no avail. Her name was no where to be found.

When Kakashi saw her eyes settle after skimming over the page, he continued. "It goes even further than that," he handed her the folder of papers and she opened it up.

"Those are all the hospital records from the night you were born. The record of your birth should have been close to the beginning since you were born early in the morning, but I looked through the entire thing anyway."

She didn't need to search for her name to understand what he was trying to tell her. "So then, you're saying that, on record I..."

"Don't exist," he finished for her.

She looked up at him, "If the village higher ups wanted me to become a secret, the only way for them to make certain of that would be to erase all evidence of my existence. This isn't exactly shocking."

"No, you're right, it isn't. But all we really know is that knowledge of your existence isn't open to the public, but this doesn't mean you would also be erased from all the classified documents that are said to contain all knowledge of the Hidden Leaf."

"Okay, so?"

"This means that someone with your abilities could have existed even though there isn't any record of it in the library. If your records are in the classified documents, then that's where any record of someone else like you existing would be."

"So then, do you have access to classified documents?" Tonbo looked at him hopefully.

"No, I wouldn't have access to something like that. And if I asked the Hokage for permission, I would have to tell her why, and that could cause some problems. It isn't the time for anyone else to know yet."

"Why not?" Tonbo looked at Kakashi with a gentle longing in her eyes.

"Kakashi, I don't want to be hidden away forever. I didn't choose any of this, and sooner or later they'll all find out anyway. So why keep everything from them?!" She looked down at her hands. "Sakura is the first friend I've ever made on my own, and yet I can't tell her anything about me. I have to keep her in the dark, just because someone else decided for me that I can't let anyone know who I really am. And for what?"

Kakashi had known that she never wanted things to be this way, but that's why he had been working so hard to give her answers. _Am I doing this the wrong way? _He asked himself.

"Tonbo, I don't know all the reasons you were taken away, but I do know that the third Hokage wanted to protect you. Just like he would want for any citizen of his village. He didn't see you the way everyone else did, he saw you as someone worth protecting."

At this, Tonbo shed tears. "I'm sorry, I know you're right. I guess sometimes I just get tried."

Kakashi sighed, "I'm going to ask the Hokage to look for your records for me. If they aren't there, then it's pointless to look for someone else like you. Once we know about your documents, we'll go from there, okay?"

Tonbo wiped her cheeks and nodded.

* * *

**Later That Day**

"You know, you're really doing great with your physical therapy! Pretty soon, you'll be out of here!" Sakura smiled up at Tonbo.

Tonbo smiled back, "Well that's good news."

"Of course for now you still shouldn't try to run."

"Right... I guess I'm still not ready for that yet," Tonbo's face saddened.

Sakura, noticing her change in expression, smiled at her again. "You know what? Tomorrow, I'm gonna take you shopping."

"Shopping?" Tonbo was not sure what to think.

"Well yeah! If your going to leave the hospital soon, you'll need something to wear other than just hospital clothes!" she stated cheerfully. "Plus it's good exercise, so it will count as your physical therapy for the day."

"Well that sounds..." Tonbo started, unsure of herself. "...fun."

Sakura wasn't expected that as an answer and was already prepared to force her, "Com-, really?"

"Well... yeah!" she smiled at Sakura.

Sakura grinned, "Great, and I know just the person to bring along. I'm sure she'll give you plenty of fashion advice, but don't worry, you won't have to listen to her if you don't want to!"

"Who is this person?"

"You can just call her Ino-pig," Sakura told her, still grinning.

* * *

**The Next Day**

Sakura had to let Tonbo borrow some of her clothes because she refused to let Tonbo walk around the streets in just a white robe.

"Hey Sakura!" Ino waved cheerfully from the spot they were all supposed to meet at.

"Hey," Sakura waved back. "Ino, this is Tonbo and we really need to help her find some clothes to wear."

"Hi Tonbo, I'm Ino," she smiled making her eyes close. "So why do you look like Sakura's twin?"

"I had to lend her my clothes for the day. When we find something that suits her she can change out of my clothes," Sakura cut in.

"Oh, I see." Ino looked the girl over. "First thing we'll have to do is find out what your color is."

"My color?" Tonbo asked.

"The color you look best in," she elaborated.

The three of them spent hours going from store to store with Ino and Sakura dragging Tonbo around with them.

Tonbo didn't really care what she wore, but it was clearly important to both Ino and Sakura. She noticed that the two girls seemed to disagree about almost everything and felt they had to bicker trying to get their own way.

This made Tonbo smile, strangely enough. Despite the fact that they would always argue, they still seemed to be having fun. Tonbo didn't quite understand this but she decided she didn't have to.

Eventually, between Ino and Sakura, she had an outfit to wear. It was mostly a pale blue color. The color was one of the only things Sakura and Ino could agree on.

The only thing Tonbo picked out herself was a navy blue band that she put around her left calf. She folded up her handkerchief into a small rectangle and tucked it in the band on the inside of her calf.

Ino thought it was ridiculous, but Tonbo claimed that it was her fault for picking an outfit with no pockets. Sakura only laughed at both of them.

Ino let out a satisfied sigh, "That was really fun!"

Sakura smiled, "Yeah, it sure was. It's getting late, we should probably eat some lunch."

After deciding where to eat, they all sat down at a table at a barbeque restaurant.

"Hey Tonbo, that's a really cute necklace, where did you get it?" Ino asked from across the table, looking at the wooden dragonfly around Tonbo's neck.

Tonbo looked down at it and smiled. "My youngest brother craved it for me, and then one of my other brothers painted it. Of course they both had help from my oldest brother. Without him, it probably wouldn't have turned out this good," she gave a little laugh.

Ino looked at it closer, "It does look pretty good, even the wings are shiny! How did they do that?"

"I'm guess it has a clear coat of paint over the wings," Sakura offered.

"Yeah, that was my oldest brother's idea," said Tonbo.

"Say, you must have a lot of brothers. How many do you have?" Ino asked.

"Just the three," Tonbo smiled.

"Wow, I wonder what it's like to have siblings, neither me nor Sakura have siblings, let alone so many!"

Ino's comment reminded Sakura of Sasuke and his brother Itachi. She never really could understand exactly what he felt. She thought that maybe she could help by bearing his burden with him. But now he was gone, and Sakura was almost lost on what she really wanted.

_That night, I wanted him to take me with him. I didn't care where we would go or what we'd be doing. It didn't matter, as long as I was by his side. But now... I've realized a bit more of how much I really didn't understand him. Did I really have the right to ask him to bring me with him? _

"Sakura? Hello? Sakura!" Ino was waving her hand in front of Sakura's face. She brought her back to reality.

"It's your turn to order," everyone was looking at her.

"Oh right, sorry." She placed her order and the waitress walked off.

"You know you should really be paying more attention to what's going on around you. How can you expect to become stronger if you can't even focus long enough to order food?" Ino crossed her arms.

"Hmph," Sakura crossed her arms and legs and turned up her nose. "At least by the end of my training I won't be a burden to my team!"

Ino smiled, and to Sakura's surprise, it wasn't a smirk. "I only said that because I care Sakura, I mean that."

Sakura blinked at Ino. She suddenly felt like they could be friends the way they used to be when they were little.

Then came Ino's smirk after the look on Sakura's face. All of the momentary feelings Sakura had, vanished. But Ino didn't say anything, she just went back to talking to Tonbo about various topics.

Sakura couldn't help but smile. She had realized that she couldn't remember the last time she'd heard Ino talk this much without insulting her. Both Ino and Tonbo were laughing and having fun.

_You know, maybe we're okay like this for now. Even without Sasuke here. Everyone's working hard to get stronger, so that we can bring Sasuke back home. But it is nice to just relax and have fun for a while. Maybe... this is good. _Sakura thought to herself.

* * *

**At the Hospital: 10:26pm**

Sakura's shift was already over, but she had stayed late helping out with other patients. She was getting ready to leave and was almost out the door when she felt something.

It was strange. She didn't know what she was feeling, but whatever it was, it stopped her right where she stood. She turned around slowly.

Everyone in her sight all had their heads facing the same direction.

_What is this feeling? I feel... I feel-, like I'm being invaded._ Sakura's entire body felt like it was tingling. _What is everyone looking at? There doesn't seem to be anything down that hallway._

No one was moving. They were all frozen in place, looking the same way.

Sakura admittedly felt something in that direction. _Do they feel the same thing I'm feeling?_

She was afraid. She didn't know why or if there was really even anything to be afraid of to begin with. But she began to walk down the hall despite the fact that everything was telling her to turn and run.

As she continued down the hallway, patients, doctors and nurses alike were all staring in the same direction, paralyzed by fear.

_Do they all feel it? Not all of them are ninja, which means even normal civilians can sense this... this... presence._

She continued turning corners, making her way to the back of the east wing. _All that's here are the... autopsy rooms._

Her eyes settled on the double-doors that were locked shut with a padlock. Her heart rate sped up and she could hear throbbing in her ears.

Trying to keep her breathing as quiet as she could, she hesitantly took a small step towards the doors. _Come on, Sakura! You have to make sure your patient is okay, even more so... your friend. _

Suddenly, Kakashi appeared out of nowhere with a puff of smoke. Sakura jumped backwards, startled half to death!

"Sakura, get the Hokage now!" Kakashi punched in the padlock combination and slipped inside the room closing the door behind him so fast that Sakura could barely register what he had told her.

She took a moment to realize what she needed to do, but she soon pivoted on her heel and ran to the front doors as fast as she could. She ran all the way to the Hokage's office, but what was frightening was that she could feel that same... _presence, _all the way there.

When Sakura bursted through Lady Tsunade's door, Tsunade and Shizune were talking about a weird feeling they both had.

"Lady Tsunade, you need to come to the hospital right away!" Sakura hastily spat out.

"Calm down Sakura, what's going on?" came Tsunade's reply.

"I don't know, but that weird feeling is coming from Tonbo's room at the hospital, and when I got to her room, Kakashi appeared and told me I needed to come get you!"

"Tonbo's rooms?" Tsunade started to run out the door. "Shizune, stay here!"

Sakura followed Tsunade out the door and in the direction of the hospital.

When they arrived Tsunade punched the combination into the padlock and hit both doors open.

The presence had vanished only moments before.

Sakura stepped in to see Tonbo on her knees being braced by Kakashi. Blood was spilling from her mouth, down her front and onto the floor.

Tonbo looked up at Tsunade and Sakura with a terrified look on her face.

"I'm sorry," Tonbo whispered.

* * *

A/N: This was original chapters 4 (The Uchiha Slaughtering) and 5 (The Presence). I know, I know, even after combining them I still left you guys with a cliffhanger! Read and Review!


	3. Secrets Revealed:The Presence Part 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. If I did, I would have even less of a life than I do now. When does Kishimoto sleep?!

* * *

**Chapter 3:**

**Secrets Revealed: The Presence Part 2/What Silver Eyes Hold/The Future  
**

**Leaf Village Hospital: 2:19am**

Kakashi and Sakura were both waiting on a bench outside the double-doors of the autopsy room. Sakura had fallen half asleep at one point and almost fell off the bench. If she had been lucky enough to fall the other way she probably would have fallen on Kakashi's shoulder.

They were both exhausted and had been kicked out of the room and weren't allowed to know about Tonbo's condition.

Tsunade emerged from the behind the doors which brought both Kakashi and Sakura to their feet in an instant. She walked slowly towards the two of them, with sweat running down the sides of her face.

"Sakura, go home and get some rest. You can see Tonbo in the morning. If she's still asleep, just don't wake her," Tsunade commanded softly.

"But is she alright? What happened to her?" Sakura pressed.

"Sakura, go now." She didn't sound mean, but her level of seriousness was still frightening.

Sakura only nodded and left.

As soon as Tsunade deemed Sakura far enough away, she turned to Kakashi, "We need to talk, now." She was much more stern with him, almost angry sounding.

"Right," Kakashi felt small under her ever impending wrath.

"Follow me," she walked off. Kakashi followed in suit.

She led Kakashi out the hospital building and to the intelligence center. When they entered the build she led him to a room, opened the door, and closed and locked it behind them.

There was a table with two chairs, one on either side. Tsunade took one of them and then motioned for Kakashi to sit in the one across from her.

Once he was seated, she spoke, "As I'm sure you're aware, this room is completely sound proof. No one will hear the following conversation."

"Well then I'm sure we'll have plenty of things to discuss," Kakashi replied.

"Tonbo will be fine. But that isn't my doing. I really thought she was going to die," Tsunade stated bluntly. Her eyes were fixated on Kakashi's every movement. She was watching his reactions closely.

When he said nothing, she continued, "The damage to her internal organs was extremely severe. There were no signs of external damage, meaning that whatever happened, happened from the inside out."

Kakashi's stoic expression was unchanged and he continued to stay silent.

"The damage that was done was done at a cellular level, it wasn't any poison. And all the damage lined up perfectly to her chakra network. Her chakra network was undamaged, but the cells around it were mostly destroyed." Tsunade took a breathe in and out, before she raised her voice. "Do you mind telling me what happened to her?!"

Kakashi sat up from his slouched position, "I came because I could feel her," was all he said.

"Feel _her_?" Tsuande suddenly felt unsure as to if she should have let Tonbo leave her captivity. _Kakashi asked the third Hokage to release her every year. Maybe there was a reason he always declined Kakashi's request. I wonder if Kakashi's closeness to the girl has been affecting his judgement. Maybe the third Hokage didn't take her away for her own protection but for the protection of the village._

She knew she shouldn't assume anything, so she had to clarify. "Do you mean that the feeling, or... _presence_ everyone was feeling... was Tonbo?"

"Yes, it was."

This concerned Tsunade. And if that was her, then how did she end up almost dying. "What do you mean by that?"

Kakashi let out a short sigh. "The truth is, Tonbo has certain abilities, specifically one that she can't explain. She says that she's taken away from her own consciousness, and experiences what someone else will experience. Sometimes more than one person at once."

"I don't think I quite understand," Tsunade said as she tried to comprehend what he had just told her.

"Well, that's how she explains it. But the best way I can explain it, is that I think she sees the future," Kakashi stated nonchalantly.

"The future?" she repeated slowly.

"Well based on what she's told me, for a period of time, she doesn't know what her own body is doing or feeling, but she sees things and feels things as if she were someone else. Or maybe just from someone else's perspective. And then later, exactly what she saw, and felt and heard will happen."

"So she 'experiences' things before they happen?"

"She says she witnesses things before they happen, because even though she feels everything as it's 'happening', when she's aware of herself again, it's like it was a dream to her," Kakashi slouched back in his chair again.

"She can't control it at all. But I know that she is still conscious when it happens, but I think she just can't distinguish between what's happening to her and what's happening in her... whatever you what to call it."

"If she can't control herself, then what was that feeling she gave everyone? I need to know if it's a danger to anyone," Tsunade said warningly.

"Her chakra nature is lightning, but she is unique. Her chakra control goes down to the atomic level. When she loses control of her chakra, it will send small electrically charges through anything it comes in contact with, but it's completely harmless. It just feels weird," Kakashi explained.

"Well then how did she end up with blood all over her?" Tsunade was still taking everything in.

"Well, she was three years old when a man put a seal on her chakra, but he didn't have all the information he needed to preform it properly. He tried to fill in the blanks by guessing. It proved to be somewhat effective, in that it didn't just not work. But it was still incomplete, and because of this, most of her chakra was locked away. She does have some free from the seal, but the amount is too small to do anything with other than things like walking on water or up trees. The seal stayed on her body instead of going to a specific place on her. She can force her chakra to leak out of the seal, and the symbols making up the seal glow the color of her chakra. In cases like last night, her chakra leaks out on its own. The tension between her chakra trying to get out and the seal causes the damage to her cells around her chakra network like what you saw. And the fact that the chakra network is interwoven with all of a persons internal organs, makes it extremely dangerous for her to ever use her chakra." Kakashi finally finished.

"You know, I worked trying to stop all the bleeding and trying to heal her for hours without making much progress. I thought she didn't have much of a chance of making it out alive." Tsunade tilted her head back and looked up at the ceiling, "Just when I thought she was about to die, her symbols began to glow that pale green color. It was only for a second, and she was unconscious for sure, but when I checked her afterward, she was in perfect health. I don't know what really happen, but somehow, it looks like in the end, she saved her own life. Whether she knew what she was doing or not."

Kakashi looked surprised, but Tsunade had closed her eyes with her head still hung back. "I didn't know she could heal herself."

This statement made Tsunade look back at him. "So there are still things about her that even you don't know?"

Kakashi didn't exactly like the small smirk Tsunade had on her face. "I guess so."

* * *

**The Next Afternoon**

Reaching, reaching... falling, falling.

She couldn't feel herself. She was numb to herself and to the world. Everything had faded from her, falling from her view like shards of broken glass. Then she started to fall with it.

Falling, falling...sinking, sinking, further and further into the blackness. She reaches upward trying to find something. But she couldn't remember what she was reaching for, and all the things that were once important to her began to fade from her mind as well.

Then, nothing.

Gone.

Just nothing.

. . .

Tonbo opened her eyes. The ceiling was painted white. She didn't feel like she could move, everything was stiff and ridged. She could hear a heart monitor beeping every time she felt a hard and painful coursing throughout her body.

There was an IV in her arm, and she wondered where she was.

Sakura noticed Tonbo's eyes had opened and she leaned over her to catch her attention. She began speaking and Tonbo turned her head following Sakura as she sat back down.

Tonbo didn't know what Sakura was saying, but her memories of the night before had started to flood back to her. She wondered how much Sakura knew and how much she had seen.

_Sakura is looking at me. That face, she looks worried. At least she doesn't seem afraid of me. I don't want her to know the whole truth, if she knows, she'll be afraid._

"Hey, Tonbo? Are you feeling okay?" Sakura was so concerned, but she didn't quite know all the right questions to ask Tonbo. She had so many, but she didn't want to overwhelm her, or make her talk about something too painful.

"Tonbo?"

"Sa-kura."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"I'm sorry if I scared you. I didn't mean to." Tonbo felt that apologizing was the best thing to do considering she didn't know what all Sakura knew. Kakashi would at least have to vaguely describe what had happened.

Sakura's expression turned into a soft smile. "You don't have to be sorry for anything. Your my friend, no matter what, I wouldn't be able to keep myself from worrying about you when something happens."

Tonbo smiled back, but her eyes were still sad. "Thank you Sakura, thank you."

* * *

**Four Days Later**

Tonbo was getting dressed and ready to be discharged from the hospital. Kakashi had told her that she was in perfect health, after she woke up. He also told her that Sakura had no idea what had happened. Tonbo thought it was strange that Sakura hadn't brought up the topic at all.

She had no idea what Sakura thought had happened, or if Sakura had been thinking about it much. Tonbo sighed as she pulled the shirt Sakura and Ino had picked out for her, over her head.

_I should probably just tell her the truth, that way she won't have to hear it from anyone else. _Tonbo groaned, _but if I do that, I'll have to explain everything else eventually. If she knew, I don't know what she'd think about me. She might just hate me. Ugh! But she's probably just waiting for me to tell her on my own, she'll hate me for sure if I don't tell her soon!_

Tonbo finished putting her clothes on. "Uh! This is so frustrating, I just don't know what to do!" she said out loud to no one.

Sighing, she pulled on her ridiculous navy band and stuck her now stained red, handkerchief. It had served its purpose well she supposed. _Kakashi should have just gotten me a red one in the first place._

She laughed to herself. She then heard the doors to her room unlock. Tsunade strode into the room in all her busty glory.

"Lady Hokage," Tonbo bowed. "Good morning," she said rising herself.

"Good morning Tonbo," Tsunade hadn't been to see Tonbo since the night of the incident. "I wish to ask you something."

"Ask me something?" she repeated. "What is it?"

Tsunade shifted her eyes to the side, staring at the wall. She almost looked uncomfortable, which was a first for her. "I'm not sure if you can remember, but..." Tsunade shifted her eyes back on Tonbo, with her look of discomfort gone. "I have to ask, what did you- uh..." she thought carefully about her word choice. "...see?"

Tonbo's eyes widened for just a second, but of course this did not go unnoticed. She knew exactly what Tsunade was referring to, and she would have to think carefully about how to respond.

She took a moment, but then didn't hesitate in the slightest, "I'm sorry Lady Hokage, but I can't tell you what I... 'saw'."

"Oh and why is that?!" Tsunade put her hands on her hips, obviously annoyed.

"People aren't meant to know what lies ahead. I am no exception to that, I shouldn't know what I do. But just because I do, doesn't mean that I can tell other people about it," Tonbo stated without blinking.

"Explain to me why you can't tell me!" Tsunade ordered pointing a finger at her.

"When people know things ahead of time and they don't like the end results, they naturally try to change it. Say for example, you saw someone kill someone else. You try to stop them by locking them up in jail before they have to chance to kill that person. What did you just do?" she looked up at Tsunade for her to respond.

"Stopped a murder from taking place," Tsunade thought that was obvious.

"Wrong. You just wrongfully convicted a man for a crime he never committed. If he didn't do it, he's still innocent of that crime. Just because you 'saw' him do it in the 'future', doesn't mean he is guilty for it. No one was murdered, so you didn't actually see the future. There is no way to prove he would have done it, because it didn't turn out the way you thought it would," Tonbo stated matter-of-factly.

Tsunade blinked at her and then thought for a bit. She wasn't wrong, she admitted, and depending on how you looked at it, her logic was sound.

Tsunade reluctantly agreed with her in her head. "Then what will you do with what you saw?"

"It will either happen, or it won't. I don't know when or if it will actually occur. It's been almost five days since then, so for all I know, it could have already happened. Besides, I only know whatever the person thinks about and feels and everything they experience in that moment. I don't know everything they know, only what they think about, it doesn't go further than that."

"So then you'll just wait to see if it happens?" Tsunade asked to clarify.

"I may never know if it does or not. That all depends," Tonbo explained.

Tsunade exhaled, "Well, are you leaving then?" she notice Tonbo had changed and even made the hospital bed herself.

"Yes, although I was going to wait for Sakura, so that she doesn't wonder where I am. She said she wanted to see me off."

"Very well then. I'll be seeing you tomorrow in my office with Kakashi," she told Tonbo.

"You will?"

"Yes, you still want to become a ninja don't you?" Tonbo remembered that was one of the first things she had told Tsunade. "We will be discussing the matter of you being a bit too old to start at the academy now, but we'll see what we can do."

Tonbo's face lit up with a huge smile. "I actually did go to the academy when I was young."

"Well we'll discuss everything later. I know you will want to be getting home won't you?"

"Yes, thank you Lady Hokage!" she bowed quickly in respect and gratitude.

Tsunade gave a slight smile and then departed. Tonbo sat on her hospital bed swinging her feet back and forth. She knew she was ready to go home, she just had to wait for Sakura.

Sakura came and unlocked the doors roughly 20 minutes later. She left the doors wide open behind her.

"Sorry that I didn't get here earlier, I decided to make you breakfast myself, but it took a little longer than I thought," she held out a box wrapped in cloth in front of her.

Tonbo took it from her in surprise. She didn't know that Sakura cooked. "Thank you, that's very sweet. But you didn't have to go to all of that trouble."

"Oh don't worry about it, it was actually kind of fun! I hope you like it," Sakura smiled at her.

"I bet I will," Tonbo smiled back.

"Well, shall we walk?" Sakura asked gesturing towards the doors.

They walked through the hospital building side by side, with Sakura guiding Tonbo through the halls. When they walked out the doors at the front of the building, they stopped and turned to each other.

"I wanted to see you again before you left the hospital. You see, now that you won't be my patient anymore, we won't see each other everyday. I'll be going back to my regular training with Lady Tsunade, and I won't have much free time," Sakura seemed a bit sad.

"Oh, I see. I guess I'll be doing other things too, now that I won't be cooped up in a hospital anymore. Although it got boring a lot, I still enjoyed being in the hospital with you as my friend," Tonbo looked down at her shoes. "I'm glad for all the time we spent talking and laughing with each other."

Sakura could see that Tonbo was sad they were parting ways as well. Sakura leaned in and embraced her.

Tonbo was shocked, she wasn't use to people touching her. "That doesn't mean goodbye. Tonbo, I value our friendship, and because of that, we will for sure see each other again," Sakura spoke gently.

By the time Tonbo had gotten over her shock, Sakura had already let go. She looked at Sakura, "I've never had a friend quite like you, but I'm glad we're friends. Thank you for all you've done for me."

Sakura smiled, "I'm glad we feel the same!"

Tonbo's face soften from its serious, and sad look into a smile. She nodded to Sakura in affirmation.

"Tonbo, where will you go?" Sakura was curious.

"Well home of course!"

"Well then tell your brothers I said hi, okay?" Sakura smiled again.

"Of course," she confirmed. "I better get going, I'll see you later Sakura!" Tonbo ran off in the direction of her house waving back at Sakura.

"Yeah, I'll see you soon!" Sakura called after her, waving.

Tonbo reached her house and opened the door. It wasn't locked, but this didn't surprise her. She took her shoes off at the door and step inside.

She noticed the house was quiet and there was dust on the floor. She walked into the kitchen and pulled a rag out of a drawer. She walked into the next room over and began to wipe the dust off the table before setting the box Sakura had given her, down on it.

When she sat down on the cushion, dust puffed up into the air making Tonbo sneeze. _I'll just have to clean everything._ She thought to herself.

She had known exactly what she would come home to. So she sat there and ate her breakfast alone.

Sakura's food was... edible, it was food after all. Although it didn't taste all that great, she was glad to have something to eat. She couldn't wait to clean out the refrigerator, who knows how long the food in there's been rotting?

After eating, she decided to clean the floors first. She went to the hall closet, and took out the vacuum cleaner. She proceeded to vacuum all the floors in the house, with the exception of the bedrooms. She wasn't ready to go that far yet.

She then mopped all the floors she had vacuumed. She cleaned out the refrigerator, which was disgusting. And she washed all the shelves as well as the inside of the refrigerator.

She wiped down all the surfaces around the house and dusted all the furniture. She washed all the things that could be washed, and cleaned all the bathrooms.

She knew she couldn't avoid it anymore, so she headed to the hallway with all the doors to the bedrooms shut.

She let out a long breath, and walked down to the master bedroom. Her parents' room.

She hesitated, but reached slowly out for the door. She rested her hand on it for a moment before she slid the door open.

The room was dusty and hazy, but it wasn't anything frightening. So she brought the vacuum in and then followed with the mop.

She left all the things in the room in their proper places, not disturbing their placements. She didn't feel right moving anything around, or putting things away.

Next, she moved on to her eldest brother's room. She did a similar routine at the door before sliding it open.

It wasn't dark or unwelcoming, it just had the same thick layer of dust she saw in her parents' room. She took much care in cleaning everything without disrupting the order or placement of anything. She wanted everything to be exactly where he had left it.

Next was her own room. She didn't find this one as difficult, but she still took her time to slide the door open to see if everything was the way she had left it.

When she scanned her own room, everything looked largely undisturbed. Her bed had been made, so she assumed her mom probably did that the morning she left. But nothing else seemed to have been touched.

She went to drag the vacuum over to her room. Before she moved into her room, she looked down at the floor. What she saw made her fall to her knees and sob.

The layer of dust on her floor wasn't even. There was one set of footprints where the dust was less thick. The footprints led from her door to right beside her bed. The two footprints that were right beside her bed had a layer of dust even thinner than the rest, as if someone stood there for a long time.

She remembered that her eldest brother was always busy and out on missions. Sometimes he was gone for a long time, and she wouldn't see him. Most of the time when he got back from his missions, it was early in the morning and Tonbo was still asleep. But every time he returned from a mission, he would come into her room and stand by her bedside. He wouldn't wake her up, or say anything to her. He would just wait there until she woke up on her own. She would always jump up and hug him when she saw him there. She loved her older brother, and she always missed him when he was away.

She was now sobbing on the floor curled up tightly. It was as if, even after she left, he would still come to her room. As if he was waiting for her to wake up and hug him.

* * *

Tonbo laid on the floor in front of her room for hours without moving. She was flat on her back, with her arms and legs spread out, just staring up at the ceiling.

She didn't want to move, but it was by this time, past two in the afternoon and she was getting really hungry. After a while of listening to her stomach protest loudly to her lack of getting up to eat something, she complied and got up.

She had to search her brothers' rooms for money so that she could go buy something. She found more than enough money lying around, for her to buy food for four or five days. But she would have to have a way to make money after that.

She grabbed a bag to put her groceries in and got ready to leave. Before she left out the door she looked at the money in her hand, and then looked down at her clothes. _No pockets... right. _She sighed to herself.

She went to the market and bought some of the most inexpensive food she could find. She didn't end up spending all the money, so she walked aimlessly through the town.

Something caught her eyes after a while. It was a flower shop, and it drew her in without her really realizing what she was doing.

She started to looked around, "Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower Shop! May I he-, oh hey Tonbo!"

Tonbo turned around to see Ino, much to her surprise. "Ino? Hi, do you work here?"

"Yeah, this is my family's flower shop! Who are you planning on giving flowers too?" Ino beamed curiously.

Tonbo looked at the money she had left in her hand. "Well, I guess I could. Just for my family, my mother really likes flowers," Tonbo smiled up at her.

"Ooo, that's so nice of you! Normally, when someone comes back from a long trip, people will give them flowers."

"A long trip?"

"Yeah, Sakura told me that you had been on a long trip and got back kind of recently."

"Oh, right," Tonbo nodded.

"Well then what can I get for you?" Ino asked.

"I don't really know much about flowers, so just something bright and cheerful maybe?" Tonbo was a bit uncomfortable.

"Hmm," Ino thought for a moment. "Well if you want to please your mom, how about some dahlias?"

Tonbo didn't know the first thing about flowers, and at this point, Ino could tell. "Uh, sure."

Ino hid a laugh and proceeded to walk to the other side of the room and pull out some pink flowers. "How many will you want?"

Tonbo thought about it, "Three," she said.

"Three? Thats a bit of an odd number." Ino looked back at her.

"Well I can only spend so much," she gave an awkward smile.

Ino smiled and took three dahlias over to the front desk and trimmed the stems with her scissors. She wrapped them up and tied a bow. "Its on the house," she handed the flowers to Tonbo.

"You don't have to do that, I don't mind pay-"

Ino cut her off, "Tonbo, you couldn't even force me to let you pay. Its called a favor, and it is okay to accept it."

Tonbo smiled, "Thank you very much!"

"I'll see you later!" Ino called as Tonbo walked to the door.

"Yeah, see you later," Tonbo waved before leaving.

She walked home with the three flowers in one hand and her bag with groceries hanging from the fold of her elbow.

When she got back to her house, she sat the flowers down on the kitchen table. She put everything that she wasn't going to cook into the refrigerator. Her mother often had her help with the cooking. She would always tell her that part of making a man happy one day, was knowing how to cook.

She made herself something to eat, and it didn't taste all that bad. She was suddenly glad her mother would always make her come inside early from playing to help with preparing the next meal.

After she ate, she took the flowers out of the wrapping and walked out the door. She headed down one of the pathways to a grassy area. She walked up and down the aisles of stones until she found the three she was looking for.

She placed a flower in front of each of the three graves. She knelt down in front of her youngest brother's.

She placed her hands together. _Hey. I finally got to come to see you again. How have you been? I've been alright myself. I made two new friends. There names are Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno. Did you know them? I know I was gone a long time. I'm sorry. I wish I could have been with you, and everyone for longer. __I miss you... _tears started to stream down her face, _...Hinashou._

She cried there silently until she fell asleep.

She woke up when she felt someone nudging her with their foot. She was startled and sat up stiff like a pencil. A boy was staring down at her with his hands in his pockets and a bored look on his face. He was familiar.

"What's a girl like you doing sleeping in a cemetery? Do you know all the unspeakable things could happen to you?" She blinked at him. He still wore a bored expression.

"I, uh," he didn't let her finish.

"Judging by the way you're dressed, I'm guessing you're not a hobo."

"A-a hobo?" she asked.

"Are you?" he cocked an eyebrow.

"No, of course not," she felt slightly defensive at the fact he had to ask.

"Well then shouldn't you be home or something?"

"Why are you asking me all this, you don't seem to care. Do you?" she used the slightest bit of sarcasm.

"I don't. When I saw you I couldn't just walk by, a man doesn't just leave a woman that could be hurt and needs help. Or apparently one that just sleeps in cemeteries in her spare time," he sighed. "Troublesome."

"So then this is just all an obligation to you?" she was a bit annoyed.

"Yeah, so don't take any of this personally," came his lazy reply.

"Don't worry, I won't," she looked back down at the ground hoping he would leave.

He sat down facing her instead. "I'm Shikamaru Nara," he stated.

She inwardly sighed, "My name is Tonbo."

"So then what are you doing out here anyway?" he asked without being sensitive.

"Just visiting, I guess I lost track of time and fell asleep." It was already dark outside.

"Who are you visiting?" he asked, and she began to wonder if he had any sense of consideration.

But, if she was honest, she didn't really care. She would actually like someone to talk to. "My parents and one of my brothers."

"Oh," it was now that he seemed to look a little concerned. But that only lasted for a few seconds. "So then, you have other siblings?"

"Yes, I have two other brothers. They're both older than me, and the one here is younger."

"Do you live with your two older brothers then?" he asked.

Tonbo couldn't help but laugh a little, "No, they're both rogue ninjas now."

He suddenly looked like he didn't know what to say. That was obviously not the answer he was expecting. "Oh, well... sorry."

She could tell he was trying, "Its okay, I haven't seen them in so long now, I might not even recognize them if I saw them."

"Do you want me to walk you home?" he asked. Despite his overall lazy and uncaring appearance, he still seemed genuine.

"Thanks, but..." she let her eyes fall down. "Do you have anyone here you want to visit?"

"Huh?" he seemed a little surprised by the question. "No, not really. But now that you mention it, I could go and pay my respects to the third."

An image of the same boy in front of her, standing over a grave, holding a small, rectangular lighter, flashed through her head. When she experienced it, he never gave away the name of the person. _So that hasn't happened yet. _She thought as her eyes grew sad.

"Would you like to come with me?"

"No thank you, I'll pay my respects to him some other time, but I really should be getting home," She got up and started off in the direction of her house.

_If she gets hurt on the way to her house, I'll probably regret not chasing after her. But I just sat down, getting up would be so... troublesome. _He sat there thinking.

He turned to look at the name on the grave out of curiosity. When he read the name, his eyes widened.

_No, it can't be. That's... impossible. _He leaped up and dashed in the direction she headed. _Where would she have gone? If anything out of what she said was true, there's only one place she could have gone._

He sprinted down the path, went through one of the district gates, and caught up to her before she could get into the exact house Shikamaru had predicted she'd go to.

"Uchiha! You- walk- troublesomely fast," he said in between pants. She stopped in mid-step with her back turned towards him.

"The surname on that grave and all the graves around it was Uchiha. But that's impossible, there are only two Uchihas left, S-"

"Sasuke and Itachi," she broke in.

She still had her back towards him. "By what you said, Sasuke and Itachi would have to be your brothers for that to be true. They are both rogue ninja, but I know that's impossible. Sasuke and Itachi didn't have a sister, let alone another brother on top of it. You're about the same age as Sasuke, and you look nothing like an Uchiha," he finished.

"You want to know the truth?" She paused to sigh and then she turned to face him. "I'm not supposed to talk about my brothers, so I'll tell you this. I was not born an Uchiha, nor am I a part of their family."

She walked into the house Shikamaru had known to be Sasuke's. She shut the door behind her, leaving Shikamaru outside with a lot of unanswered questions.

* * *

A/N: Again, combination of chapters and what not. Hope you guys like and are curious as to what Tonbo means by that. Read and Review!


	4. Secrets Revealed:The Past

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. I own my original characters so no you can't have them:).

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

**Secrets Revealed: The Past**

**Age 3**

It wasn't often that he came out to this part of Konoha himself. This was one of the poorest areas in Konoha, and crime here was routine. The neighborhood was cut off from the rest of the village. This was probably in order to keep up appearances when other nations visit.

The last time he was here in person, was years ago. But this time, he wanted to come to ask a witness questions about a case himself. Being the leader of Konoha's Military Police Force, it wasn't common for him to do such a thing.

He had gotten what he needed, and so he was heading out of there. He had the gates in sight when he felt his body tingle all over. He went numb.

He had never felt this way before. It was chilling, and his finger tips felt hot. He began to sweat and his head was throbbing with every pulsing heartbeat.

He swept the knuckle of his thumb above his eyebrow. He did understand, but for some unknown reason, he felt vulnerable.

He suddenly became more aware of the blood in his body, heating his core and head with every beat of his heart, spreading from his chest throughout the rest of his body. He felt light headed and nauseous. He touched the back of his hand to his forehead.

He then noticed his body felt like it was pulling on him. His muscles kept him in place, but every part of him was being beckoned.

He slowly turned around. There, under a tree by the side of the dirt road, was a little girl. She wore worn sandals and was covered in dirt and bruises. Her purple waves of hair going all the way down her back.

She was sitting with a stick in her hand, drawing in the dirt. He didn't understand, was this girl responsible for the way he was feeling? She couldn't be, she looked like a toddler.

He walked over to her and squatted down in front of her. Whether she had noticed him or not, she wasn't acknowledging his presence.

"Hey, why are you here all by yourself? Don't you want to play with the other kids?" he ask her. He wasn't sure what to say to her or why he was talking to her in the first place, but there he was.

The little girl looked up at him. He noticed she had a black eye, and some other bruises on her chin.

She didn't say anything to him. "Wouldn't you rather play with the other kids? It can't be fun to be all alone."

"The other kids don't like me very much," she looked back down at the ground. "They don't want me to play with them."

"Well why not? That doesn't sound very nice," he decided to keep conversation.

"Well today was different. I asked to play this time, but one of the boys was calling me names. I don't know what lots of the words mean, but when he called me ugly, I... I-" her eyes jumped towards herself guiltily. "I kicked him in the face," her voice got quite towards the end of her sentence.

He still felt uncomfortable, but he laughed. The girl looked up at him in confusion. This had been the first time she had ever done anything so mean, and this man was just laughing at her for it.

"Well I hope you gave him a good black eye to match yours!" Was he... encouraging her?

"It's good to stand up for yourself sometimes. Don't let those bullies beat you up all the time," he said when he had calmed down.

"That was this one time, but they don't like me for the same reason you don't." This got his attention. She was suddenly more intriguing than he had thought her.

"I never said I didn't like you, what made you think that?"

"You're afraid of me, just like everybody else."

This statement did strike a tinge of fear in his heart. _Maybe this girl is the source of the feelings I'm having. If she is, she holds great power. Power that could be useful one day._ He thought to himself.

"What do you mean, _power_?" she asked aloud to him.

He looked at her again, stunned. _But I didn't say anything. _

"But I heard you say it," she continued.

As if it has just dawned on her, her eyes widened. She had just realized that his mouth had not moved.

She was confused, "I don't understand." She looked at the ground with eyes still wide and unfocussed. She looked terrified.

Realizing that he had to be cautious of what he thought, he only let his mind attend to everything moment by moment.

He steadied his breath, still feel light headed. "My name is Fugaku. Why don't you come with me, I'll clean you up. You look like you need someone to tend to all your injuries."

She looked back up at him slowly, unsure of herself. He reached out his hand to help her up. She stared at it for a while, but then took it.

To the little girl's surprise, he picked her up to carry her. She couldn't remember the last time she was carried, let alone touched without it hurting.

He carried her quite a distance, and she didn't know where they were. Everyone would stare at them as they walked by. Everyone could feel her presence.

They went through the Uchiha district gates, and when they got to his house, Mikoto, his wife, was standing in the doorway with a look of serious concern on her face. She was afraid of whatever that feeling was as well.

When her eyes settled on the little girl in her husband's arms, she knew immediately that the girl was the reason for what she was feeling.

"Fugaku?" she asked as he walked past her into the house. "And who do we have here?" she was trying her best to mask her fear.

"I found her on the side of the road on my way back. She needs to be looked at, will you do that for me?" he asked walking off into the next room after setting her down.

Mikoto looked at the little girl. She had a son about the girl's age, why was she so afraid?

"Did you get hurt sweetie?" she asked bending down to be closer to eye level with the girl.

The girl said nothing to her. She was unsure what that meant. She was concerned that maybe the girl didn't like her already.

"Here, why don't you sit down and I'll go get some bandages and something to clean you off with, okay?" Seeing as how the girl again said nothing, she walked off to get supplies from the bathroom.

When she returned she didn't say anything, but she picked the girl up and sat her on top of the table and tended to her. When she was all bandaged up, Fugaku had returned.

"All right, will you wait here for me for a bit?" Mikoto asked. She got no response, so she walked out of the room with Fugaku.

"Why did you bring that girl here?"

"You feel it too, don't you?" Fugaku ignored her question.

"Yes, what is it?" Mikoto was seriously concerned about all of this.

"I'm not sure, but she has power. I'm guessing your father might be able to shed some light onto this, if anyone might have an idea about what this power is, he would." Fugaku was thinking everything through in his mind. He had a plan already.

"Yes, that's true, but how do you know this girl really has any kind of power? And what do you think you could do to harness that power anyway?" Mikoto asked.

"The girl knew what I was thinking. At one point, she couldn't tell the difference between what I was actually saying out loud, and what I was thinking in my head."

Mikoto's eyes widened. She was more afraid of the girl now than she had been before.

"If we can keep her close to us, get her to trust us, then maybe she'll one day use that power for us."

"Do you really think that that would work? The closest people to a child are their family, and we can't be that for her," Mikoto didn't like the idea of being close to a being that knew what she was thinking.

"Maybe not, but I would like to try. She could be useful."

"I don't know what my father would say, but if you want to know about her power, take her to visit him. He'll have to feel what we feel in order to determine what she is. After that, then we can talk about keeping her close. If it's too risky, then I don't feel comfortable having her around," Mikoto didn't really want anything to do with the girl.

"Alright," Fugaku leaned in and kissed his wife on the forehead. "I'll take her to see your father before it gets dark. I know you're afraid, so I want you to know, that I'm afraid too."

She smiled sadly up at him. He turned and went to get the girl.

"Alright, I'm going to take you to meet someone new, are you okay with that?" Fugaku asked the little girl.

She didn't say anything to him, but she hopped off the table to stand at his side.

He picked her up again and this time, put her on his shoulders. He carried her to the library, where a certain retired shinobi, who studied ancient shinobi clans and their powers and abilities, now worked to pass the time.

Mikoto's father knew more about all the different clans' history than anyone else in the village.

When they got to the library, the secretary told Fugaku that his father-in-law was in his office. The young girl lead him to the room in the back with the door closed. The girl quickly scurried off, it was obvious she felt afraid.

Fugaku was about to knock on the door when it opened.

The old man looked up at the little girl who was on Fugaku's shoulders. "Who is this girl Fugaku? Why did you bring her here?" the man never took his eyes off the girl. She stared back at him.

Fugaku lifted the girl off his shoulders and set her down on the floor. "Couldn't you wait out here for a while? I promise I'll be back shortly, I just have to talk to this man."

She again didn't say anything to him, but she walked off to a book shelf, pulled a book that was down at her level, and sat down right there in the aisle.

He entered his father-in-law's office and closed the door behind him. "I want to know about the girl's power. Do you have any idea what it is? She knew what I was thinking earlier, and I'm sure you could feel her presence long before I got here."

"Fugaku, I understand your interest, but I also know that you aren't curious about the girl for just knowledge sake. You want to know if you can use her power, am I right?" the old man asked, testing his son-in-law.

"It's for the good of the clan. My only interest in her power is because it could be very useful."

"For the good of the clan is it? Alright then, bring her in here so that I may assess her," he motioned for him to get the door.

Fugaku walk back out the room and went to bring her to the old man. When he had come back with her in his arms, the old man had an old scroll unrolled on the floor. He preformed some hand seals and quickly placed his hand over the girls heart before Fugaku could do anything.

Symbols from the scroll crept from the parchment, up Fugaku and onto the girls body. The symbols began to glow pale green. They stopped moving and settled on her arms, legs, face, neck, torso, and an open circle right over her heart.

The symbols faded, and the girl passed out cold.

"What did you do to her?!" Fugaku was livid.

"I sealed her chakra away. Now you won't be able to use her as a weapon. You should not drag a child into our clan's affairs. Her chakra nature is lighting, and she has abnormally high chakra control. Using her chakra, she can sense all electric signals. This means that she can sense all the electric signals in your body. As your brain sends signals to your body, her brain interprets them. She knows everything your body is doing, and because your thought are also electric signals, she can "hear" your thoughts as well. Or at least, she could."

"You had no right to do that!"

"You're right. Just as how you had no right to treat this poor child like a tool. Listen, she doesn't know what it's like to not be able to sense everything that happens around her. In order to see things, she will actually have to look at them. In order to hear things, she will actually have to be close enough to hear them. In order to feel things, she will have to touch them. Using her chakra the way she had been was subconscious. It was her way of interpreting the world, she doesn't know that other people don't experience things the way she did. I took her way of interpreting the world away from her, so she'll need help. She'll need someone to be there for her. When she wakes up, I'm sure she'll be more frightened then she ever has been in her life. She'll need someone to guide her through this. So treat her like a child, she's vulnerable, and she needs someone to take care of her. Make sure she has someone like that."

* * *

Fugaku had lied the little girl down on the floor and he sat next to her and placed her head on his lap. He had to wait for her to wake up to ask her for directions on how to get her home.

His father-in-law sat down beside him with much trouble getting all the way down to the floor in his old age. "My guess is that she is a descendent of a clan of sensory ninja, although I've never heard of such a particular ability. She would have been great at intelligence gathering," the old man spoke.

Fugaku sighed. "I didn't know that someone could have such an ability. It's incredible."

"Yes, it really is. To hold such power as this, if she were to be led down the wrong path, there's no telling what destruction she'd bring."

"What do you mean?" Fugaku questioned.

"It is true that her ability is meant for sensory purposes, but that does not mean that it cannot be twisted and skewed into something else. There is a way that it could be used as a weapon, but I'm not sure if she is capable. It would be much more difficult to use as a weapon."

"How could she have used it in such a way?" Fugaku was once more intrigued.

"Now that, I will not tell you. But it doesn't matter anymore because she can't do anything with it now," the old man was glad that Fugaku had brought her to him. "This girl could have been dangerous if I hadn't sealed her chakra away. I was worried that maybe, if you had decided to turn her into a weapon, she would one day realize that you had only wanted her for her power. And then the first people she would came after, would be you and Mikoto. And I couldn't let that happen. The girl might have grown up to be a monster."

"Well now without her chakra, the girl doesn't have much of a chance to become a ninja. But maybe that's best anyway."

The old man looked over at Fugaku, "My son, I know that you want our clan to receive the respect it deserves, but even if you had used her to help in this, she is not an Uchiha. If you really are serious about the plans you have, you need to do it with your own power and the power of the clan. There are no shortcuts when it comes to matters such as these."

"So then, you aren't disagreeing with my plans?"

"Fugaku, you are the head of the clan. And as such, I follow you loyally. But that doesn't mean I have to agree with all of our decisions. And I will also do what I must sometimes to point you in the right direction."

"According to how you see things?" Fugaku didn't like all that he had said.

"Yes, I suppose you could say that."

After that was said, they both sat there in silence until the little girl started to stir.

As the girl awoke, she shifted herself in Fugaku's lap. She turned her body inward towards him. When she opened her eyes, all she did was stare.

"It seems you're awake," Fugaku commented.

The girl moved her hand in front of her face and stared at it. She clenched her hand into a tight fist and allowed her finger nails to dig into her skin. Her knuckles turned white and she released her hand and looked at the marks her nails had made.

She then traced over the marks with her finger tips. "What is she doing?" Fugaku directed his question at his father-in-law.

"I believe she is trying to figure out if any of this is real or not. She has never experienced things quite like this before. Everything is surreal to her, she must feel impaired."

She began to dig her nails further into her skin. Fugaku grabbed her hand and slid his fingers under hers, blocking her from doing any further damage to herself. "Stop that."

She tilted her head up and made eye-contact with him. Her eyes were terrified, and she truly was afraid.

"It's okay," the old man began. The girl sat up to look at the grey-haired Uchiha. "This is real, and you're real too."

Her look told the man that she was still unsure. He grabbed her free hand and held it against his throat. "You see, you can feel it can't you? Maybe you can't feel me speak in the same way as before, but you still can in a different way. So you'll be okay." His voice was low but gentle, and she seemed to be calmed.

Instead of the terrified look she had in her eyes, it was now replaced by a sleepy, warm look. The sun had already set behind the trees, and Fugaku knew that her parents would probably be worried about her.

"I need to get you home, can you guide me to your house?" Fugaku asked her.

She took her hand off of the old man's neck and placed it on Fugaku's instead. She still had Fugaku's fingers pinned to her palm. She didn't want to let go, she didn't know how to keep track of them without sensing them. She was afraid that if she let go, she would be alone and in the dark forever.

Fugaku was still. He didn't know what he should do. "Tell her again," Mikoto's father told him. "She wants to feel you tell her."

Fugaku understood, "Will you be my guide? I'll carry you the whole way there, okay?"

She could feel the vibrations of his vocal cords that allowed him to speak. She nodded to him, and he stood up with her, once again, in his arms.

He then helped his father-in-law up from the ground. "Well despite everything, I want to thank you for at least helping me with her. I still don't understand her, but you did help me get closer to that."

The old man looked on at the two of them. "Just make sure she's taken care of."

Fugaku nodded and left.

Once Fugaku had made it back to the spot he had met the girl earlier that day, he woke her up after having fallen asleep in his arms, and she pointed him toward her house without saying a word.

The house that she led him to was small and old looking. But it didn't look too bad in comparison with most of the area. It had one floor, and was square.

He knocked on the door. After hearing some murmuring followed by footsteps, a large man with blonde hair and blues eyes answered the door.

"Who are you?" the man looked Fugaku over. "Is that my daughter you're holding?"

"My name is Fugaku Uchiha, and I was just bringing your daughter home."

"Uchiha? You're with the police aren't you? Did she do something? We aren't gonna have to go to court, are we?" the girl's father pressed.

"No, nothing like that, she didn't do anything. I just wanted to take her home, it is after dark, so I wanted to make sure she got home safely." Fugaku defended.

"Honey, who are you talking to?" A woman appeared just behind the man, presumably the girl's mother.

She had long, dark purple hair and dark green eyes. Fugaku then noticed that the girl's eye were silver, and looked nothing like either of her parents'. She looked like a mixture of her parents in every single way, with the exception of her eyes.

He let the girl down from his arms, but to his surprise, she stayed but his side.

He watched as the woman's eyes settle on her daughter. Neither the woman, nor her husband had felt their daughter's presence, and they still couldn't feel it now. This scared them, perhaps more so than when they could feel her.

"What have you done with her?" the woman asked.

"She's fine, she isn't hurt or anything. I was just trying to do the right thing by bringing her back to her parents. Okay?"

The man stepped back inside and stepped to the side to let the girl in the house. She understood what he was getting at and went inside the house, disappearing from Fugaku's sight.

"Well thank you for bringing her home, have a nice night," the woman said as she closed the door.

Fugaku went home after that.

Once Fugaku was far enough away, the girl's father began to hit her. Blow after blow, the little girl gritted her teeth and winced at the pain.

She didn't cry though. She knew that the only reason her father did this to her was because he was truly afraid of her. This was her father's way of asserting dominance over her. She knew that this made him feel safer, and that he thought he was protecting himself and his wife.

She knew that especially tonight, he needed this to feel safe. He couldn't feel her, and that was scary.

Once he had finished beating her, he left her their and went to bed. The girl's mother walked by with a basket of laundry. "Mommy," the girl rarely spoke to her mother. "I think my arm is broken, it won't move when I tell it to."

Her mother stopped walking, but didn't look at her, "Clean up the mess you made." She then walked off.

The girl got up and wet a rag and cleaned the blood off the walls and floor. There wasn't very much blood, but cleaning it up hurt in more ways than one.

She supported her arm by carrying her limp limb by her other hand. She made her way out the door and started walking to that man's house.

She tried to remember the way their to the best of her ability. It was far for such a small child to walk, but she kept walking alone in the dark. She didn't know if she was going in the right direction, but she pressed forward anyway.

When she arrived at the gate with a fan on the front, she remembered this was the area. She decided to walk straight down the middle road, hoping she would find the house. Or at least the way to get there.

She did find the house after searching for quite awhile. She made it to the front steps before she collapsed from exhaustion.

She couldn't feel anything the same way, everything was blank to her. She didn't know what to do, she couldn't get up and she was so afraid.

Her instincts took over and she started to scream, "Help! Please, Fugaku, help me!" She was sobbing and making as much noise as she could to try and get his attention.

Both Fugaku and Mikoto rushed outside at the sound of all the screaming and pleading.

Fugaku took one look at the girl and knew this was all too serious. "Mikoto, stay here with Sasuke, I'm taking her to the hospital," he instructed as he picked her up and ran off in the direction of Konoha's hospital.


	5. Secrets Revealed:The Past Part 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. Even if I did, Tonbo still probably wouldn't be canon. (Maybe Hinashou would.)

* * *

**Chapter 5:**

**Secrets Revealed: The Past Part 2  
**

She could feel the sunlight on her face. It was warm and bright. Her body no longer ached and she felt safe.

She slowly opened her eyes. She was under the covers of a bed and she had a cast on her left arm. She untangled her right arm from the covers and reached to touch the cast. It was hard and she was assured that it was real.

She sat herself up and this woke the woman who was sitting in a chair pulled up close to the bed. She had had her arms and head resting on the edge of the bed. She sat up in her chair and looked at the little girl.

She smiled, "You're awake. I'm glad you're okay." Now that the girl's chakra had been sealed, she no longer feared her. But her smile faded into a frown. "Did they do this to you? Your parents?"

The child said nothing, but looked back down at her arm. For Mikoto, that in itself was an answer.

"It's okay, I won't let them hurt you anymore." Mikoto leaned in closer and brought the back of her fingers to the girl's cheek. "From now on... you can call me mother."

The little girl seemed shocked and Mikoto wondered if she had overstepped. But all that worry changed with a single word. "M-mother?" That was the first time the little girl had said anything to Mikoto, and for her, that moment was precious.

She watched as the little child crawled out from under the covers and onto her lap. The girl placed her ear to Mikoto's chest and listened to her heart beating.

Mikoto was overwhelmed with emotions. She was happy that the girl wanted to know that she was real, but she was sad knowing that the girl's real mother probably never tended to the child.

She found herself crying. She was still a bit stunned by the girl's actions, she wasn't quite sure what she should do. But she instinctively wrapped her arms around the girl and embraced her.

They stayed like that for a long while, until Mikoto spoke again. "You were asleep a long time. I was so worried about you."

The girl still had her ear against Mikoto's chest, and she was now playing with the ends of Mikoto's hair.

"Please tell me, what is your name? I need to call you something."

The girl shook her head at Mikoto. Mikoto was unsure what that meant. "Well then how about I give you a name until you're ready to tell me your real name. That way you'll know when I'm calling you, okay?"

She nodded her head and Mikoto put her hand to her chin in thought. "Oh, I've got it. For now, I'll call you Hanahime. Having two boys of my own, I never got to name a girl, but I've liked that name since I was a child. It was my best friend's name. Does that sound okay?"

The girl nodded again, and that was that. "Alright Hanahime, your clothes are filthy, and you need a bath," the mother in her took over. "Bath first, and then I'll wash your clothes. You'll have to borrow some clothes while I was your own."

She stood up with Hanahime in her arms and went to give her a bath. Once she had bathed her, she dried her off and put her in boy's clothes that fit surprisingly well.

She brought her back to the guest bedroom. "Alright, I'm going to wash your clothes, if you need anything, you can just call for me, okay?"

"Okay," Hanahime nodded. The second word. This made Mikoto smile.

She walked away and left Hanahime in the room. After a while, Hanahime heard the front door open. She thought it might be Fugaku, so she left the bedroom and walked down the hall towards the front door.

She froze in place when she saw two little boys, roughly the same height as her. They both had dark raven hair and onyx eyes.

"Hey Sasuke, is that girl wearing your clothes?" one of them asked.

The one who was presumably Sasuke called out, "Mother!"

Hanahime darted into the nearest room. Mikoto came to the voice, walking while talking. "Sasuke, I thought you were over at Hinashou's house." She turned the corner to see the two boys standing in the hallway.

"Oh, Hinashou, you're here too? What are you boys up to?"

"Well we were over at my house, but then Sasuke forgot his shuriken, so we had to come back here. But then there was this girl here and she was dressed in Sasuke's clothes, and-" Hinashou was cut off by Sasuke's hand going over his mouth.

He received a hard glare from Sasuke, but both looked up when Mikoto put her hands on her hips.

"_Sasuke's_ shuriken?! I think you mean Itachi's. You both know that you aren't supposed to take Itachi's stuff. When you have your own you can use those. But you're both still too young to be handling shuriken. I'm sure your mother would say the same, Hinashou," she scolded them.

"I told you not to mention it," Sasuke hissed at Hinashou.

"You were the one who told me they were yours!" Hinashou shot back.

"Boys, just go back to Hinashou's house for now, okay?" Mikoto commanded more than asked.

Sasuke looked up at his mother, "But wait a minute, there's still some girl wearing my clothes, she went into my room too."

"Oh so you met her already, have you? That's just Hanahime, she'll be staying here for quite a while. So you both have to be nice to her, got it?"

"Well yeah, but why was she wearing Sasuke's clothes?" Hinashou stifled a laugh.

"I'm washing her clothes right now. Later today I was planning on going into town to get her something more to wear, seeing as how she only has the one outfit."

Sasuke and Hinashou just looked at each other. "Alright, now go back to Hinashou's house, both of you," Mikoto shooed them out the door.

Mikoto walked back over to Sasuke's room and opened the door. Hanahime was just standing with her back against the wall next to the door. Mikoto could tell she was uncomfortable having heard the conversation.

"Hanahime, why don't you come with me and we'll get you some new clothes to wear now?" Mikoto asked.

Hanahime nodded, "Those boys, one of them was your son? And the other one, was he your son's friend?"

Mikoto smiled, "Yes, Sasuke is my son and Hinashou is his best friend. They're with each other all the time. Sometimes, I feel like I have three son's instead of two."

"And then, this is Sasuke's room?"

"Yes it is, and he probably doesn't want you in here, so why don't we leave?" she reached out a hand and Hanahime took it.

During the time Mikoto and Hanahime went shopping, Fugaku had gone to Konoha's gates to walk home with Itachi after he had gotten home from a mission. Fugaku explained the situation to his eldest son on the way home.

Fugaku knew that he would have to explain in less detail to his youngest son. Sasuke was about the same age as Hanahime, and many of the things that had happened to Hanahime are hard for a three-year-old to handle, or even to understand.

When Fugaku and Itachi got back home, Mikoto was getting Hanahime dressed and Sasuke and Hinashou were running around the house playing ninja.

When Sasuke saw Itachi, he ran up and hugged him. Hinashou did the same thing. "Itachi, you're back from your mission!" Sasuke smiled.

"Did you do a whole bunch of cool ninja stuff?" Hinashou asked.

Itachi smiled down at them. "I'll tell you both about it later."

Fugaku put a hand on Itachi's shoulder, "But right now, I need to talk to you Sasuke about our guest. And Hinashou, since you're here, you might as well listen too."

The two boys groaned to each other as they followed Fugaku into the next room.

"Alright boys, the girl who will be staying with us is about your age and the guest bedroom will from now on be her room. If you ever want to come into her room you must knock first and make sure she's okay with you coming in. You both have to treat her with respect, but also, since she will be living here, I expect you to treat her like family. You both got it?"

They both nodded their heads.

"Alright, good. Mikoto!" he called out. "Will you bring her in here so the boys can meet her?"

"Yeah, we're coming!" Mikoto called back.

Mikoto entered the room with Hanahime following close behind. When Hanahime saw the three boys she had to meet, she hid behind Mikoto's legs.

Mikoto laughed, "It looks like she's a bit shy to meet all of you. You can call her Hanahime."

Mikoto had put Hanahime in a dress, and she had brushed her hair so that is wasn't a tangled mess anymore. She looked much better now that she wasn't wearing Sasuke's clothes.

"Hanahime, that is my oldest son, Itachi, my younger son, Sasuke, and Sasuke's best friend, Hinashou. But sometimes Hinashou feels like my third, and youngest son," Mikoto pointed at each of them.

Itachi looked curiously at Hanahime. He wasn't quite sure why his parents decided to take in someone that wasn't an Uchiha.

"Hanahime? Flower princess huh? Well you might be pretty, but that doesn't make you a princess," Hinashou almost always said the first thing that came to his mind. "I'll call you Hanahi instead."

Hanahime wasn't sure whether to take that as a compliment, or as an insult.

"Hinashou, that isn't very nice," Mikoto began.

"Okay, I like it," Hanahime came out from hiding behind Mikoto.

This surprised everyone. "Hanahime, you don't have to-"

"No, I like it," she broke in again.

Both Hinashou and Sasuke were shocked. They had planned on annoying her to no end, and that was supposed to be the first hit. But it didn't seem to go quite as planned. They hadn't liked her from the beginning because neither of them wanted to have some girl always following them around with Mikoto always telling them to include her.

But she didn't seem phased. "I would rather not be called a princess all the time anyway," she explained further.

"Alright then... we'll start calling you Hanahi," Mikoto gave in.

After a few weeks, the boys did start getting along with Hanahi. They started to do everything together, and Hanahi became a lot more open. But there were still matters Fugaku and Mikoto had to resolve.

"Has she told you what her real name is yet?" Fugaku asked his wife.

"No, and we can't go to court to get custody of her without knowing her name and the names of her parents. For now we're fortunate that her parents don't care enough about her to file for a missing child at the police station."

"I know that. The sooner we can get custody of her, the better. We have to have custody of her before she turns six years old. We can't enrolled her into the academy without custody over her."

"We still have a few years before that, my concern is that people will start asking about her. Then what do you tell them?"

"For now, the fact that we're keeping her here has to remain a secret."

* * *

It had been a couple of weeks since Hanahi had gotten her cast off. At first she had been afraid to use it and so she was given a week of physical therapy. After that, Mikoto had to give up on having Hanahi wear dresses.

She played outside in the dirt all the time with Sasuke and Hinashou, so from then on it was shorts and a shirt.

Hanahi had told Sasuke and Hinashou all about where she used to live and about how dangerous it was. Because of this, the boys both thought it would be a perfect challenge to have to survive a day in her old district.

Hanahi thought it might be hilarious to watch them trying to cope with all the crazy kinds of people she remembered living there. No one really messed with her when she was living there, but she knew that that probably wouldn't be the case anymore. It really could be dangerous.

But as children go, they don't necessarily have good judgement. So Hanahi agreed to give them the challenge. She, of course, would be the judge.

They told Sasuke's mother they would be at Hinashou's house all day, and they told Hinashou's mother that they would be at Sasuke's house all day.

They knew that they would probably figure out that they had gone somewhere else, but they just needed it to work long enough for them to get there.

On the way, Hanahi told the boys the details of the challenge. "Alright, just surviving the day isn't enough of a challenge, so instead, you'll have a goal. I'll go in ahead of you two and I'll hide this flag," she held up a flag she had made out of a stick and a piece of cloth. "You too will have to find it together. Of course, you may run into dangerous people or some other type of obstacle along the way. You can't buy food or water, if you get hungry or thirsty, you have to get what you need some other way. Oh and no stealing. It's wrong so that's against the rules too. Once you find the flag, whoever gets it first wins. You might have to fight each other for it like real ninja. But whoever grabs it and pulls it out of the ground first is the winner. If you just touch it, it doesn't count. Got it?"

"Sounds a lot better than just a test of survival. It'll be easy!" Hinashou was obviously excited.

"Don't forget who you're up against. I won't go easy on you," Sasuke smirked.

Hinashou smirked back, "Well in that case, I'll make sure to go easy on you, that way you'll stand a chance!"

"Oh yeah? Race you to the gates!" Sasuke took off and so did Hinashou.

"Hey wait a minute, you don't even know where you're going!" Hanahi called after them. She sighed, "Idiots," and she took off running after them.

They did make it to the gates, but Hanahi had to run behind them calling out which way to turn. The boys stood with their hands on their knees, panting in front of the district gates.

"I- so- beat you," Hinashou said between pants.

"You- so- did not," came Sasuke's slow reply.

"You both got here at practically the exact same time, and the competition hasn't even started yet!" Hanahi broke into their conversation.

"How come- you aren't- tired?" Hinashou was annoyed.

"Because I'm not an idiot and I actually knew how far away I was from the gates."

"I'm not an idiot!" both Sasuke and Hinashou said in unison.

"You know what, you boys are right. You're only idiots when you're together!"

"Hn." They both crossed their arms.

This made Hanahi laugh. Somedays they were total opposites, but sometimes they acted just like each other.

"Okay, you two wait here, I'll be back," Hanahi went off to hide the flag and the boys both sat down off to the side of the gates to rest while they waited.

She came back within 15 minutes with a shirk across her face. "Okay, ready?" she asked them as they stood up.

"More than ready," Sasuke looked smug. Surprisingly, Hinashou had a very serious and determined look on his face. It was rare to see him so serious, he just nodded to Hanahi.

"Alright, remember, you have to find the flag together. This is mostly because I can't keep tract of you both at the same time," Hanahi began.

"If you could make a shadow clone, that wouldn't be a problem," that was more in character for Hinashou.

Sasuke couldn't help but smile, he thoroughly enjoyed seeing Hanahi get annoyed.

"Shut up! It's not like you can do that either!" Hanahi shouted.

The boys both stifled their laughs. Hanahi glared at both of them, "Ready, set, go!"

They both took off running side by side again. "And there they go. What's the point of running? They'll probably run right past it. Idiots," she said to herself before she too, took off running so she could follow them.

They eventually got tired of running and started to walk. After a while of looking, Hinashou started asking for a hint every few minutes or so, which Hanahi denied him.

Almost everyone in the district seemed to be scary or intimidating, or both. For the most part, no one really bothered them, although one woman with matted hair tried to take them home with her. They told her that their father would be back for them any minute. She eventually backed off.

It was a little past noon and they were all hungry by now. "Hanahi," Hinashou groaned. "How do you expect us to get food? Are we supposed to catch a wild animal or something?" he whined.

"Do you see much in the way of a forest around here? There's nothing but streets and dark alleyways for the most part," Hanahi implied an answer.

"Well then how did you feed yourself?" he questioned.

"I took food out of my parents' refrigerator. I didn't live out on the streets you know."

Hinashou suddenly felt stupid. "Then what are we supposed to do for food?" Sasuke put in.

"That part's easy. All you have to do is ask," Hanahi smiled.

"You mean beg," Sasuke corrected.

"Hanahi, Uchihas never beg," Hinashou clarified.

"Well you two will just have to swallow your pride if you want swallow something to eat. Or you could just go hungry for the day," Hanahi teased.

She scooped up some dirt in her hands, and proceeded to rub it into her clothes.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked.

"Just watch." She knew that if this was going to work, she would have to pick someone who did know her from before. Otherwise, no one would give her anything.

She chose an older man with really thick glasses who was selling apples on the side of the street. She walked up to him and tugged on the sleeve of his shirt.

"Excuse me sir," the old man looked down at her.

"Oh why hello there young lady. What can I do you for?" he asked with the kind of kindhearted smiled only caring old men could bear.

"Could you spare some food?" she gave him the saddest eyes she could muster.

"Oh, well of course I can. A growing girl needs to eat." He picked one of the apples off his stand and placed it in her hands.

"Thank you very much sir!" she made sure to brighten up her face in as much gratitude as she could.

She turned to leave but the man grabbed her shoulder. "You know what? Actually, why don't you take another one." He handed her a second apple.

She bowed to him. "Thank you!"

She then left the old man and came back over to where Sasuke and Hinashou had been watching from a distance.

She wore a smug smile on her face. She bit into one of the apples. "And that's how to get food. Just don't go up to the same person."

"Hn. I am not doing that," Sasuke crossed his arms.

The hunger was getting to the Uchiha boys, but Hinashou broke first. "Fine. I'll do it," he was unhappy about it, but he was happy about the idea of having food in his belly.

After watching Hinashou do it, Sasuke reluctantly gave in and went to beg as well.

It was a few more hours before they found the flag. It was in the middle of a crowded four-way intersection. Although the street was filled with people, no one seemed to have touched the flag.

Sasuke and Hinashou battled it out right there in the street until one of them had pulled the flag out of the ground.

They then started to walk back while they talked. "Looks like I beat you," Sasuke dangled the flag in front of Hinashou's face, tauntingly.

"You only won because that man with the fruit cart got in my way, he's the only reason you got the opportunity," Hinashou pouted.

"Hn," Sasuke smirked. "If you had been paying more attention to your surroundings, you would have noticed him coming. Blame it on the fruit man all you want, that doesn't change the fact that I still won."

"Yeah, whatever. If we hadn't been in a crowded place like that, I would have beaten you."

They continued to argue, and the sun was getting low in the sky.

A boy who just happened to be spot Hanahi's long mess of purple hair from behind, watched them as they walked.

_Is that Tonbo? I've been looking for her for three months! Looks like she's been hiding out ever since she kicked my little brother in the face! She can't get away with that. _He'd always hated her, and everyone else did too. So why were two boys hanging out with her?

Not that he cared, but he figured if he could somehow let those two know that they didn't want to hang out with her, he could probably save them from her.

"Hey Tonbo!" he shouted out to her.

Hanahi stopped in her tracks. Sasuke and Hinashou took a few more steps before they realized she was no longer moving with them, and came to a stop themselves.

"What's wrong Hanahi?" Sasuke asked.

She didn't answer, but she turned to face the boy who had called out.

"What do you want?" she asked.

Sasuke and Hinashou looked at each other, not quite sure why she was talking to that kid.

"You know, I've always thought Tonbo was a nice name, for a boy!" the kid spat at Hanahi.

Sasuke and Hinashou were even more confused at this point. It sounded like the kid was trying to be insulting, but neither of them saw how that was an insult.

_If I don't say anything, Hinashou and Sasuke will just ask about it later. I can't let them think I'm weak, I can't just turn away._

"It's not a boy's name, it's _my _name!" Hanahi yelled forcefully.

Sasuke and Hinashou were shocked, and apparently so was that kid, although they didn't know why he would be shocked.

Hanahi... or _Tonbo_, turned back around and started walking in the direction of the district gates. It took a while before Sasuke and Hinashou turned and followed after her.

They walked in silence most of the way home. It wasn't until the Uchiha district gates were in sight that someone spoke. "You know, I like Tonbo better. That way I don't have to remind myself not to call you princess every time I talk to you."

Tonbo and Sasuke both looked at Hinashou in surprise. "You mean, you aren't angry?" Tonbo asked.

"No, not really. To tell you the truth, I wasn't all that surprised. Shocked, yes. But I already had a feeling."

"What do you mean?" she asked him.

"Well, a few days ago, I had noticed that Itachi never once called you Hanahi or Hanahime. So I asked him why he never called you anything, and he said that it was because that wasn't your name. When I asked him what he meant by that, he didn't answer me."

"So Itachi knew, and he never told us?" Sasuke asked.

"Well neither of us had ever asked before," Hinashou defended.

"Alright, fair enough. But why did you go by a fake name in the first place?" Sasuke asked Tonbo.

"Well, actually mother gave me that name. When I woke up from after breaking my arm, she was there. And that's when she told me to call her mother. Then she asked me what my name was... but I couldn't tell her."

"Why not?" Sasuke asked.

"Well she had just told me to call her mother, and the my real mother was the one who named me. It's hard to explain, but I just didn't feel right in telling her right then. But she insisted on calling me something so that I would know when she was talking to me. So she named me after her best friend from when she was a child."

"And then after she had introduced you as Hanahime to us, you were afraid to tell us?" Hinashou pressed.

"Yes," Tonbo replied.

Sasuke looked over at Hinashou, "Looks like we both win something," he smiled slightly. Hinashou smiled too and nodded in agreement.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Tonbo didn't understand.

They stopped in front of Sasuke's house and both Sasuke and Hinashou hugged Tonbo together. Neither of them had ever hugged her before, and she didn't understand why they were hugging her now. But still, she found herself crying silently. She wasn't sad though, she was happy. So she returned their embrace.

* * *

"Tonbo? That name is very uncommon. We should be able to find her birth certificate and that will have both the names of her parents on it. Then we can start building our case to get custody over her," Fugaku explained to his wife.

"We really will have custody over her soon, won't we?" Mikoto's eyes shined as she stared up at her husband.

"Yes, we will," he smiled at her.

* * *

A/N: The second part of this where the kids go to Tonbo's old district is usually everyone's favorite chapter. I must admit I'm pretty fond of it myself. Tell me what your favorite chapter is. Read and Review!


	6. Secrets Revealed:The Past Part 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. (Which is probably a good thing.)

* * *

**Chapter 6:**

**Secrets Revealed: The Past Part 3  
**

Tonbo had escaped through her window before dawn. She knew what day it was, and she hated everything about it. She didn't want to be anywhere near anyone who might possibly know what the day's date represented.

So she had walked around in the forest near the Uchiha district for hours. She did feel a tinge of guilt for leaving without a word. She knew that she would probably cause her family to worry about her. Especially mother, she was always worried about her for some reason or another.

Maybe she should go back. She hadn't eaten anything, and it for sure must have been past ten in the morning by now. But she didn't want things to be like they had been in the past.

She knew that things were different now that she was living with the Uchihas, but she was so afraid of feeling the way she did when she was living with her biological parents. Today, at least used to be, the worst day of the year for her.

Every year she was always told about how hated she was, and that her existence was a curse. Being so young, it was hard for her to imagine things ever changing. For her, life seemed to have always repeated itself, day in and day out.

But ever since father, mother, Itachi, Sasuke, and Hinashou were brought into her life, things have been different. In a way, that scared her. The uncertainty of everything, the fear that things will go back to the way they once were, and the overwhelming desire to keep things the way they are now, are all but foreign to her now.

Being so young, and having so much change and instability in her life was frightening. But she supposed, she had to face it eventually. So she began her short journey back out from the forest and towards the house she considered her home.

She slowly walked up to the front door and paused on the wooden porch. She began to take off her shoes when the door opened in front of her.

Her face was instantly covered as someone wrapped their arms around her head and held her tightly against their chest.

A shuddering release of breath was followed by the unsteady voice of Mikoto, "I'm so glad you're safe! I was so worried. Where did you go? Something could have happened to you! Are you hurt in any way?" She paused to push Tonbo back away from her, holding her out by the shoulders so that she could make eye-contact. "Please, don't you ever run off like that again," she spoke sternly.

But her hard look soon soften again and she pulled Tonbo into another tight embrace. "Oh, I'm glad you're okay!"

Tonbo wasn't sure what to say. She hadn't been expecting this "overly emotional" reaction.

Tonbo looked downward, "I'm sorry mother."

It was then that Mikoto realized that Tonbo's parents had never cared much about where she went or when she was gone. In fact, they were glad whenever she was gone or had disappeared unexpectedly.

This time Mikoto let Tonbo go, "Oh, Tonbo, I'm sorry. Please, you don't have to feel bad. As your mother, I just want you to be safe. And even more than just that, I want to know that you're safe. As long as I know, then that will be enough. So please promise me that you'll always tell me where you're going?"

"Okay, I promise," Tonbo figured that was the only thing she could say.

Mikoto gave her a soft and sweet smile. "Alright, come inside, I made you breakfast and you weren't here to eat it."

Mikoto ushered her child in the house and sat her down at the table. The smell of her home cooking wafted throughout the brisk autumn air. Mikoto had prepared a more elaborate meal than usual in order to celebrate the occasion.

Mikoto knelt down beside Tonbo and looked her in the eye. "From now on I want you to always remember that you are _my _daughter, and for that reason, I will always look after you."

Mikoto stood and left the room, off to the kitchen to prepare a plate for Tonbo, leaving the girl to stare at the empty place Mikoto had oh so recently occupied, taking in all that was said.

Tonbo had never been spoken to in such a manner before. But it made her feel loved and cared for.

"The boys are all out looking for you, so I don't expect them to be back until they get hungry enough to come for lunch," Mikoto called from the kitchen.

"Mother?" Tonbo was still staring at the same spot, void of any presence. "If I'm your daughter, and Sasuke and Itachi are your sons... then they're my brothers, right?"

Mikoto was a bit intrigued at the fact that she would ask something such as this. "Yes, I suppose they are."

Mikoto brought a plate full of food and a pair of chopsticks to the table, and placed them in front of Tonbo.

"You all act like siblings already anyway," Mikoto continued.

"We do?"

Mikoto nodded and gave Tonbo a pleasant smile.

"Then if they are my brothers, so is Hinashou," Tonbo concluded.

"Oh, is that so? Why do you say that?" Mikoto found this all very endearing.

"Well I'm almost never with Sasuke without him, and I act the same way with him as I do with Sasuke. So if me and Sasuke act like siblings, so do me and Hinashou."

"Well then I guess that does make you siblings," Mikoto didn't see any harm in going along with that, Tonbo was hard to waver.

"We're a family, aren't we?"

In some ways, Mikoto felt bad for taking Tonbo away from her real family. But at this point, she knew that this was better for the girl. She needed to feel like she could be accepted by someone.

"Yes, we are indeed."

After Tonbo ate, she went back outside to see if she could find Sasuke and Hinashou. They still weren't back yet from looking for her. She went up and down the streets a couple times before she decided to check the training grounds that they always snuck off to.

Sure enough, they were just leaving as she came up. When the boys saw her, they both immediately put their hands behind their backs.

"Tonbo!" Hinashou called before he ran up to her.

Sasuke, of course, casually walked over. "Hn, you weren't easy to find," Sasuke wasn't trying to be rude, it was just that Tonbo disappearing like that was annoying.

"Hey," Tonbo gave them a bit of an awkward smile. She now regretted making them look for her like that. How could she have been so stupid to think that her new family could even think of treating her like other people had.

"Well... since it's your birthday..." Hinashou had a hard time not being embarrassed when he gave people things. But he held out the gift in his hand, wrapped in cloth. "Here."

Tonbo just stared at it for a moment. She had never received a gift before in her life, but she knew she was supposed to take it from him, so she did.

"Thank you," she said still just awkwardly staring at the cloth in her hands.

"Well, open it," Hinashou instructed.

She looked up at him and then back down at the cloth. She then, slowly unwrapped it, revealing a necklace made out of twine, with a little blue dragonfly hanging from it.

"A dragonfly?" she asked.

"Yeah, because you're Tonbo. It was actually Itachi's idea," Hinashou began to rub the back of his neck.

"Wow, it's beautiful," Tonbo put it around her neck.

Hinashou smiled, "It's made out of wood. I carved it and Sasuke painted it."

"You two made this?" Tonbo was impressed.

"Well, Itachi helped a little," he admitted.

_More like did most of it._ Sasuke was enjoying how awkward and uncomfortable his best friend was looking. He couldn't remember a single time before when he seemed so uneasy.

"Thank you so much," she smiled widely.

Sasuke got Tonbo's attention by removing his hand from behind his back. He held out a white ribbon.

"I got you this because whenever we're training, your hair always gets in your face. So I thought, maybe you could use it to tied your hair back." Sasuke was far more at easy, but there was still the slightest sign of discomfort.

Tonbo smiled and took the ribbon from Sasuke. She was laughing on the inside at the fact that Sasuke was always so practical.

"Thank you Sasuke."

The two boys both smiled at her. That's when they were both stunned by her sudden lurch forward to hug them.

"You two are the best brothers ever!" she chimed.

"B-brothers?" they both echoed behind her shoulders.

* * *

**Age 4**

Fugaku knocked loudly on the door. He was ready to yell. He had too much anger built up for the occupants of this household.

He had a stack of papers tucked under his arm and a pen in his hand. He was here on business, so he knew he would have to restrain himself from doing or saying anything careless.

An all too familiar man opened the door with blonde hair and blue eyes; Tonbo's biological father.

"I've seen you before," the man stated trying to remember when and where.

Fugaku grabbed the papers from under his arm and shoved them at the man he detested. "If you sign these papers now, you won't have to show up in court."

The man eyed Fugaku in a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. "What is this all about?" he grabbed the papers and turned them so the writing was facing him.

"I want custody over Tonbo," he was blunt and straight forward.

Tonbo's father snapped his he back up. "Tonbo? Custody? ...It was you who took her then?!"

"I didn't take her, she walked all the way to my house in the middle of the night after you had beaten her so badly, she had a broken arm, several cracked ribs and bruises all over her body!" By this time, Fugaku was fuming with anger.

"You had no right to keep her! She is _my_ daughter and you can't take her away from me!" he yelled back.

Fugaku took a small step back and gave himself a moment to fall back into his usual expressionless demeanor. "I have photos and x-rays of Tonbo from the night you beat her. If you refuse to sign this, granting me custody over her, I'll go to court with my evidence. Then everyone will know what you did to _your_ own daughter. I'll force you to give her up," Fugaku was stone cold and monotoned.

Tonbo's father stood there and stared blankly at Fugaku for a while. Then he reached out his hand. It took a second for Fugaku to realize what he was doing, but once he did, he handed the pen in his hand over to the man.

He skimmed through the cumulation and then signed his name on the line. He reluctantly turned over the pages to Fugaku, and they parted ways without another word.

* * *

**Age 5**

"Hey boys! Time for dinner!" Mikoto called out the back door to Sasuke and Hinashou who had been sparing with each other.

"Coming!" Sasuke called back. They raced each other to the door and just about slammed into each other in the doorway.

Tonbo, who was setting the table, jumped at the sound of them. This was not unnoticed by Sasuke and Hinashou, which became clearly evident when Hinashou began laughing and Sasuke grew a smirk.

"Hn. How do you expect to become a great ninja if you get scared every time come in the house?" Sasuke knew this would irritate her.

But instead of showing it, she smirked. "Hn. How do you two expect to become great ninja, if you can't stop yourselves from almost crashing into each other all the time? Control is key in becoming a shinobi."

Hinashou stopped laughing and Sasuke's smirk faded. They all stared at each other for several seconds before Tonbo broke the silence with her own laughter.

Hinashou and Sasuke looked at each other, and then smiled. They all knew that they would one day become great ninja together. That's the way they had planned it from the beginning.

"Alright, sit down to eat," Mikoto said carrying in the dishes with dinner and setting them down in the center of the table.

They each sat down and pressed their hands together to say "Thank you for the food," before eating together.

It was only the four of them that night. Fugaku was at a meeting with the rest of Konoha's council. Being the head of the Uchiha clan meant that he was required to attend. Itachi was out on a mission... again. Being a jounin at this point, meant that he was gone a lot.

They were all fairly used to it, but in a way, they were each still a little lonely.

But they all still smiled and talked as they ate their meal. After dinner, the kids excused themselves from the table and went to Sasuke's room to play.

Mikoto sighed, but didn't protest. _They're still good kids. _Mikoto smiled, _I hope they always stay this close. In the shinobi world, it's good to have family, although, sometimes it can be a burden._

She continued to think on the futures of her children as she cleared the dishes off the table and carried them to the kitchen sink.

She turned the faucet on and began washing a plate. The water was loud enough that she wasn't sure whether she had really heard the back door open or not.

She paused from scrubbing to look up and listen closer to see if she could hear anything else. After a minute of silence, she was satisfied, brushed it off and went back to her task.

No more than seconds later, she heard movement inside the house, she was sure of it. She shut the water off, and walked until the back door was in her sights. It was left wide open.

Her first thought was to get to the kids. She swiftly tiptoed to the hall with the door to Sasuke's room closed. She hoped that they were still in his room, and that the intruder was not.

She had to keep them safe, so she started to walk down the hall when she felt a shadowy presence shift behind her. She turned to see a man with his faced covered and a kunai in hand.

Her eyes widened when she realized he was a leaf shinobi. _He has a leaf shinobi forehead protector on. So why did he sneak into my house?_

"Where's the child? Where are you keeping it?" his voice was scratchy and his words were thick.

_It? _Mikoto decided that if she spoke and the children heard her, they might know to keep quite and hide. At least she hoped so. "I don't know who you mean, so get out of here! You shouldn't be here!"

The man disappeared and reappeared in front of her, grabbing her by the collar and holding the kunai to her throat, so fast she didn't have any time to react.

"Come on woman, I need this child for my plans. I know you know who I'm talking about... but I can understand why you would want to protect such a powerful weapon," he whispered in her ear.

A chill went up Mikoto's spine. "A... weapon?" she reiterated.

"Yes," he spoke with a revoltingly silky tone. "I'm sure you know the one. To think, a child has the ability to kill without lifting a finger, without using a jutsu and without moving a muscle. No one would want to just give up that kind of power, right?"

Mikoto was frozen. She wasn't sure if such power existed, but the thought of it was frightening. "I-I don't know a child like that," Mikoto said in a small voice.

"Oh, I'm sure you don't." Mikoto noticed the man's eyes shift to somewhere behind her.

A penetrating fear struck Mikoto worse than anything before. There could only be one thing that caught the man's undivided attention.

"Mother!" Sasuke screamed. Mikoto could turn her head just enough to see all three of her five-year-olds get into fighting stances.

"Kids, no! Go and hide, now! Run!" Mikoto desperately screamed.

"Shut up!" the man smacked Mikoto across the face.

"Mother!" both Sasuke and Tonbo cried out. Acting on instinct, Tonbo brought one of her hands, into a hand seal in front of her chest.

Mikoto knew that Tonbo's charka had been sealed away, so she didn't expect anything to happen. But inside of nothing, symbols appeared all over Tonbo's body, glowing a pale green.

Everyone drew in a sharp breath as they began to feel strangely. For the first time ever, Tonbo looked furious. Her eyes were full of hatred and she gave the man a sinisterly, hard look.

Mikoto had never been more afraid of anything before in her life. She suddenly found herself wondering if Tonbo would remember that she was her mother, and that Sasuke and Hinashou were her brothers. She began to fear, that she might kill all of them.

_Please... don't... kill...Sasuke..._ was all that was on her mind. Otherwise, it was completely blank, void of anything else but her fear.

Tonbo's subconscious could hear Mikoto's thoughts, but for now, that was far from her mind.

Sasuke and Hinashou couldn't take the intense feeling, and the smothering hatred, and passed out, cold on the floor next to Tonbo. Mikoto's eyes began to tear, as she watched Sasuke and Hinashou fall to the floor, not sure of their conditions.

The man found that he couldn't move at all. He was also afraid. The woman he still had gripped by the collar, went limp, and he knew she had passed out like the two boys had.

He then involuntarily let go of the woman, and she fell and hit the floor hard like a slab of meat. He was then force to throw the kunai down at his side.

His eyes then began to blur and he could feel himself falling forward. He kept his eyes on the girl until they went black. His last, fleeting thought was, _What... power._

Once Tonbo's eyes had followed the intruder all the way to the ground, she exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding. The intensity left the air, and the symbols on her body disappeared. She felt pain in her chest and doubled over coughing.

As she coughed into her hands, they felt wet. So when her coughing stopped, she looked down at her hands to see blood everywhere. She felt nauseous and gagged, only to have more blood come up.

As she straightened herself, she felt dizzy and lightheaded. The world started to spin around her, until it stopped sideways and she closed her eyes, unconscious.

* * *

A/N: And things are beginning to unfold... Please Read and Review!


	7. Secrets Revealed:The Past Part 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. Which I thank Kishimoto for inventing Itachi!

* * *

**Chapter 7:**

**Secrets Revealed: The Past Part 4  
**

Itachi had gotten back from his latest mission early. He had been walking home when he felt a surge of energy coming from the Uchiha district. He wasn't entirely sure what it was but it gave him a bad feeling.

He activated his sharingan and ran in the direction the feeling was leading him. He soon noticed that it was coming from inside his house. He didn't hear anything unusual so he paused for only a second on the porch.

But the feeling vanished in that instant so he came bursting through the door to see what was going on. He made his way through the house to the hallway that led to the bedrooms. He first saw his mother and a man he did not recognize lying on the floor with their eyes closed.

His eyes then shifted further down the hallway to the three small bodies lying in front of Sasuke's bedroom door. He immediately noted the amount of blood all around them.

He knelt and went to check every person's pulse. _They're all still warm to the touch...but two of them are dead._

He stood back up slowly. _I'll need to take the other three to the hospital._ He could only carry one at a time, so he picked up Sasuke and flashed away to the hospital. The next person he took was Hinashou, and then his mother.

He knew that with two people dead, his house would turn into a crime scene and the police would want the dead bodies to be left exactly where he found them for the investigation. He knelt down again to remove the mask on the unknown victim.

He saw a flash of green light on the walls from behind him. He turned to Tonbo's body to notice that her chest was now moving up and down. The flash of light was enough for his sharingan to understand now what had happened.

He knew that when everyone woke up, things wouldn't go so well if he didn't do something. He had to think of a plan. Trying to cover up Tonbo's mistakes wouldn't do anything, he had to completely erase the evidence.

He left the Leaf shinobi's body alone and walked over to Tonbo. He used his sharingan to peer into her mind scape.

"_Tonbo," _he called out to her. Her mind's self opened its eyes at the sound of her name. She sat up and she looked around. She was in a place with almost no light. Instead of solid ground, there was a thin layer of glass supporting her. She couldn't see an end to it in any direction, and looking down, she couldn't see a bottom to the empty space below the glass.

"_Tonbo,"_ Itachi spoke again. Tonbo looked up and now she could see Itachi standing on the glass in front of her without any expression on his face. However, she could feel his aura of disappointment threatening to suffocate her.

She had never seen the sharingan before, and his red eyes surprised her. She opened her mouth to try and speak, but no sound came out. She paused herself in confusion and then tried again to speak. Nothing.

She looked on to Itachi for some sort of guidance. And he spoke to her again. _"You have lost all innocence. Just because you are still a child, doesn't excuse you. You have done the unthinkable and commented murder. Do you understand what it is you have done?"_

The realization hit Tonbo hard. She had only been thinking about protecting her family. If she was honest with herself, she had actual been afraid. She didn't want to see her family taken away from her, but she wasn't really thinking about what she was doing at the time.

She nodded slowly in the affirmative. Itachi registered, _"If everyone wakes up and remembers what they witnessed, they will fear you. People are afraid of what they don't understand. My guess is that the council will debate over what to do with you. But I don't expect them to be very forgiving at the thought that this could happen again."_

Tonbo hung her head low. _"But..." _Itachi began. _"...if I were to give your innocence back to you, would you promise not to throw it away again?"_

Tonbo snapped her head back up. She didn't understand what he meant, but she knew she wanted to stay with her family. So she nodded to him, promising not to kill anyone ever again.

"_Very well then."_ Itachi responded. His body then started pulling itself apart. Each piece that left his figure turned into a crow and flew off, disappearing from Tonbo's sights.

Tonbo tried to call out for him, and tried to make him stay. She reached out her hand in his direction, but he completely vanished.

* * *

The next thing Tonbo knew, she opened her eyes and sat herself up in one abrupt motion. She took a moment to gauge her bearings. She could hear a heart monitor next to her in sync with the pounding in her chest. She was in a hospital bed and the sun was shining through the window into her eyes.

"Tonbo?" she heard someone say. She turned to see Mikoto in the hospital bed next to hers.

"So you are wake. Do you remember anything?" Mikoto asked.

Tonbo had to think for a moment. _Remember what?_ she thought to herself. She began to try and think back when she came to the realization that she had no idea what she was doing in the hospital or why she might be there.

Her mouth felt dry as she tried to speak. "The last thing I remember is being in Sasuke's room with him and Hinashou."

Mikoto gave a weary smile and clasped the back of her head. "So you don't remember what happened either. The last thing I remember was washing the dishes. Itachi told me that he found all of us on the ground in the hallway. Sasuke and Hinashou haven't woken up yet, but the doctors say they're both just sleeping."

"Itachi?" Tonbo felt uneasy and she didn't know why. "Where is Itachi?"

Mikoto smiled again, "He hasn't left Sasuke's side more than once. He came by when the doctors told him I was wake, but other than that, he's been glued to Sasuke's bedside."

At this, Tonbo felt almost jealous. She could never have the same kind of relationship with Itachi that Sasuke had with him. Itachi was one of the people Tonbo admired the most. But she smiled anyway. She knew that Itachi really did care about Sasuke and she supposed she didn't really need to see Itachi that badly for now.

* * *

Later that day, Fugaku attended a council meeting about what had happened in his own home.

"We need to have a full-on investigation into this matter," one of the council members spoke up.

"I agree, a Leaf shinobi died and we need to know what happened last night," said another.

"The man had a heart attack, there was no foul play. We don't need to investigate an accident," a third said from across the table.

"Even if it was, that still doesn't explain all the blood and the kunai."

"Well yes, but there was no evidence of anyone else being injured at all."

"Well then who's blood is it? There could have been someone else on the scene. Whoever's blood that turns out to belong to was somehow involved. Their blood will place them at the crime scene."

"It isn't a crime scene!"

"Oh really? You have a dead body, a weapon, four people who were found unconscious and couldn't remember anything, and a mystery person's blood!"

The council chamber erupted with noise as everyone tried to make their own points. Everyone grew silence when the third Hokage raised his hand indicating he would speak.

He removed the pipe from his mouth, "As far as we know, no crime was commented. When the DNA test results come back from the lab, if it belongs to someone else then there will be probable cause to launch an investigation. Until we know more we cannot be certain of anything."

The old man turned to the head of the Uchiha clan. "Fugaku, this took place in your household, and therefore, it is very personal to you. Because you are the leader of the police force, if you wish to learn what really happen, then you have my permission to pursue answers. I leave that decision to you." The third Hokage then raised himself from his seat, "Everyone is dismissed."

Everyone submitted to his authority by rising and bowing to him before departing. As Fugaku started to head out the door, Mikoto's father caught his eye, waiting by the camber doors for him.

Fugaku took a deep breath before walking up next to his father-in-law. They began walking side by side down the hall, neither of them speaking until they got far enough away from the others.

"Could you hear the conversation?" asked Fugaku.

"Yes, ever word. They couldn't be much further from the truth at this point. I know what must have happened," replied the old man.

Fugaku looked to him, "How would you know what happen?"

The old man waited a few steps before telling him, "The girl you took in has learned how to use her power as weapon on her own."

"What do you mean?"

"She must have killed the Leaf shinobi," he lowered his head slightly and shook it in disappointment.

"But that's impossible, you were the one who sealed her chakra away in the first place. If you really were listening in, you would know that the man died from natural causes; he had a heart attack," Fugaku defended.

"No, the man was young and healthy. I looked at his physical records, he had no prior heart problems, or health problems at all for the matter. He rarely even grew ill."

"That doesn't prove anything. There was no evidence of any jutsu being used on him, and there isn't a known jutsu that can kill without leaving evidence behind. Let alone make it look like a heart attack."

"It wasn't a jutsu. Her chakra uses electricity to sense electrical signals, but if she can control her chakra, she can send signals into a persons body as if they were from the persons brain. The body will respond to the signals and do what they tell them to. If I am correct, all she would have to do to kill someone, is to tell their heart to stop beating."

Fugaku had to think about this for a bit. This would mean the girl could control people. That kind of power could help him accomplish anything. Ever since Tonbo's chakra had been sealed away, he had abandoned the idea of using her in his plans. But knowing this, he could once again make very good use of her. But there was still one problem with that theory.

"That still doesn't explain how she could do any of that if her chakra has been sealed away," he pointed out.

"Yes, well you see, I discovered this sealing jutsu long ago. It was old and came from the Uzumaki clan. But the book I found it in was so worn, the writing had mostly faded. Most of the parts I could be sure of, but I've been trying to fill in the blanks for decades. I could never test it because that could be dangerous. But when you brought that girl to me, I knew she was dangerous, so I went for it. I thought it had worked because I couldn't feel her chakra anymore. But perhaps it worked only partially."

"So then you tested a dangerous jutsu you didn't have all the parts to on my three-year-old daughter?!" Fugaku was livid.

"Now Fugaku, she isn't your daughter. You only have temporary custody over her, which means that once she reaches a certain age, she won't be yours anymore. You won't be able to protect her forever, once the DNA results from the blood come back, it will be hers. Eventually I'll have to speak up and tell the council the truth. For the sake of the village," the spoke sternly.

"For the sake of the village? Where do your loyalties lie?" Fugaku questioned.

"With the Uchiha clan first and then with the village. She is not an Uchiha. Just because you changed her surname doesn't make her apart of this clan. I see her as a threat to the village and the clan."

"If your loyalties really do lie with the clan first, then I'll adopt her and she really will become an Uchiha. I'll raise her to be loyal to the Uchiha alone."

Mikoto's father stopped walking, but Fugaku kept going on ahead. The old man sighed. "If you do that she'll be dragged into the clan's plans, and she will face the same fate as all Uchihas, whatever that fate may be. If things go wrong, she will be punished as an Uchiha, they won't excuse her from anything," he called from behind.

Fugaku paused his walking. "She is the plan," he said without facing his elder. Then he continued to walk on.

* * *

**Age 6**

"Sasuke, Sasuke. Come on, wake up," Tonbo was shaking Sasuke who had been asleep in bed.

Sasuke squinted his eyes open. "Tonbo? What do you want?"

"I told mother that we would be at the training grounds."

Sasuke put his forearm over his eyes. "What time is it?"

"Almost three in the morning," she said without tire.

"Three in the morning? Why are you getting me up now?"

"Because, this is one of the only times the training grounds are empty," she reasoned.

"Yeah, that's because everyone who's smart is asleep right now."

Tonbo crossed her arms, "How else are we supposed to get training in before the entrance exams?"

Sasuke sighed. "Just let me get dressed first," he said as he swung his legs over the side of his bed.

Tonbo smiled with satisfaction. After Sasuke finished getting dressed, Tonbo climbed on to his bed to reach the window.

"Come on, we still have to get Hinashou," she said.

"If you told mother we'd be at the training grounds, then why are you climbing out the window?" Sasuke had skepticism written on his face.

"Because we don't want to wake anyone up," she said in a completely clam manner.

Sasuke gave her a look. She sighed, "I asked her last night." She already had one foot out the window.

She held out her hand to help Sasuke up. After a moment of thought, he gave in and took it. They both went over to Hinashou's house and knocked on his window until he opened it. After Hinashou got dressed and climbed out his window, they left together for the training grounds.

"Are you excited for the entrance exams next week? We'll finally be able to start training to become real ninjas like Itachi!" Tonbo was mostly just thinking out loud.

"Yeah, if it means we can catch up to Itachi some," Sasuke decided to reply.

"Yeah, maybe someday we'll even surpass him. Although I think you two are more likely to do that with your sharingans," Tonbo admitted.

"Well that doesn't mean that you can't surpass him too," Sasuke tried to encourage her.

Tonbo smiled, "Yeah, I guess your right." She looked over to Hinashou who had been quite. "Aren't you excited too Hinashou?"

Hinashou looked across Sasuke at her. "Actually, I won't be taking them yet."

"Huh?" Tonbo was surprised.

"I won't turn six until February, so my mother decided to wait until the spring class to enroll me."

"Well there goes our chances of being on the same team when we graduate," Tonbo wasn't being very considerate.

"I'd only graduate six months after you two. It isn't that long," Hinashou was trying to convince himself more than anyone.

"They decide teams as they graduate, so there's no way we'd all end up on the same team if we aren't all in the same class."

"What if we ask them if we can be on the same team?" Hinashou felt a bit uncomfortable for asking this. "I know that you two would have to wait to go on missions but..." he trailed off.

Tonbo wasn't sure what she would do. _I know that we've always wanted to be on the same team and everything, but waiting six months to go on missions would put us behind the other teams. We'll need as much experience as we can get before we attempt to pass the chunin exams. And then we'll either be outclassed or we'll fight kids a year younger than us. Which would be embarrassing. _

Sasuke interrupted Tonbo's thoughts. "We'll do whatever it takes to be on the same team." Both Tonbo and Hinashou were surprised at him. "And here's how we'll do it. Hinashou, your coming with us to the entrance exams. Not to enroll, but I think if we show them how well we can work together and how badly we want to be on the same team when we graduate, we might have a chance." Hinashou smiled.

"Yeah, okay, but how do we show them how well we work together?" Tonbo asked.

"We'll have to do something coordinated, and demonstrate it for them," Sasuke offered.

"Well if we're going to do it, we better practice, right?" said Hinashou.

Tonbo smiled, "Then let's get going!" They ran the rest of the way to the training grounds.

They practiced all week early in the morning when shinobi weren't using the training grounds. They always got back in time for breakfast and all three of them ate more than usual.

A week after they had taken the entrance exams, Fugaku and Mikoto met with board of education to go over the results of Sasuke and Tonbo's exams.

Sasuke received high marks in every area for his age group. He would be put in the class that was scheduled to graduate in the spring when he turned 12. Tonbo however, was a very different story.

"Tonbo's scores were quite varied. In mathematics she scored higher than anyone else has ever scored on this exam. It seems that she is able to calculate things in her head that most people can't. She never showed any work. Watching her, we noticed she just looks at the problem and writes down the answer. However in language and literature, her writing is very lacking. But, luckily for her, that isn't as important for becoming a ninja. Oh and another thing, her handwriting is awful and extremely difficult to read, so make sure she works on that. We will be placing her in the class scheduled to graduate this spring," the man finished.

"This spring? She would graduate younger than Itachi did," Mikoto was shocked.

"Yes, she would, but we won't be graduating her that early. For some reason unknown to us, she has an extremely low amount of chakra. The cause isn't lack of conditioning either. We aren't sure why, but it seems she won't be able to preform ninjutsu or genjutsu. So, that of course leaves taijutsu. So for the remaining time between then and when Sasuke graduates, we will put her with a taijutsu specialist to train her. That way she can graduate the same time as Sasuke does. They wanted to be put on the same team, didn't they?" he asked.

"Well yes they did, but they also wanted to be put on a team with Hinashou Uchiha. He won't be graduating until the fall after they do, unless he somehow gets ahead," Fugaku explained.

"I am aware of that. I took it up with the third Hokage seeing as how the Hokage is the person who decides who gets put on what team. He said he liked how strong their bonds are. They call each other siblings even though none of them were actually born siblings. So he worked out a plan for in the case Hinashou doesn't get ahead. When Sasuke and Tonbo graduate, they will train with an older team of ninja. Of course, when that team goes out on missions, they will stay here. But they can learn a lot from an experienced team. After Hinashou graduates, they will be assigned a jounin sensei."

"Thank you for allowing them to be on the same team, I know they will all appreciate it," Mikoto bowed her head in gratitude.

He smiled, "Of course, we like kids who are passionate."

Mikoto and Fugaku both bowed and left.

* * *

A/N: Read and Review!


	8. Secrets Revealed:The Past Part 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. And that is why I write fanfiction instead.

* * *

**Chapter 8:**

**Secrets Revealed: The Past Part 5  
**

The first day of school at the ninja academy marked the day Tonbo and Sasuke were finally being emerged into the shinobi world. Although Tonbo was in a class with students much older than herself, she still ate lunch with Sasuke. And of course, they would walk home together after school.

As soon as the bell rang, signaling the end of school, Tonbo grabbed her stack of homework and left the building quickly to find Sasuke. She kept her gaze at the ground and she waited under the tree they decided to meet at.

Other students walked past her, and she didn't know whether they were staring at her or not, but she didn't want to look up to find out.

"Hey," Sasuke said causally as he walked up to her.

"Sasuke," she looked up at him and immediately noticed that people were watching the two of them as they walked by. "Let's go home now," she turned to rush off towards their house.

Sasuke caught her arm and made her turn back to look at him. "What's wrong? You don't have to be in such a hurry you know."

She looked around them uneasily. Sasuke hadn't let go of her arm. "Sasuke, I just want to get out of here, okay?"

"What's gotten you so worked up? Did something happen today?" Tonbo looked him in the eye and then looked down at his hand clasped around her wrist. As if he hadn't realized he was still holding her arm, he suddenly let go of her.

"Alright, tell me what happened," Sasuke pressed.

Tonbo looked back at the ground. "Nothing happened really. It's just that everyone hates me."

"What do you mean hates you?"

"The kids in my class are all a lot older than me, so none of them will even talk to me. And I can't make any friends my age either."

"Why not?"

"Because..." Tonbo shifted her eyes sideways. "...because I ate lunch with you."

Sasuke grew a very smug smile across his face. He knew exactly what she was getting at, and he found it amusing.

"Don't smirk, this is your fault! If you were ugly, they wouldn't hate me so much!" Tonbo yelled in frustration.

Sasuke stifled his laugh. "Fine, then let's go home." Sasuke grabbed Tonbo's hand and started pulling her forward.

"Wait," Tonbo tried pulling her hand back but Sasuke didn't let go. "I don't want them to hate me even more."

Sasuke kept walking, "Relax, I'm your brother aren't I?"

"Well yeah but-" Sasuke cut her off.

"I have to look out for my little sister, so don't freak out so much. Besides, if there isn't anything you can do about them hating you, you might as well have a little fun before they find out I'm your brother."

Tonbo knew Sasuke was stronger than her, so struggling would just make her look like an idiot. She relaxed her pull and started walking next to him. "For the record, your argument was terrible, and I'm less than three months younger than you."

Sasuke smirked, "I don't expect you to understand," Sasuke's smirk faded and turned into a softer smile. "But I'll always do my best to protect you. So don't worry about what other people think about you. Just focus on being Tonbo, because I know that Tonbo isn't this self-conscious."

It was then Tonbo realized that Sasuke had grabbed her hand just to prove that to her. Now she felt embarrassed because she knew he was right. "Fine... you win," she whispered.

Sasuke knew that rubbing it in would ruin his victory, as she would take back her admit of defeat. So he stayed quite and they both resumed their roles as brother and sister walking hand in hand.

"Hinashou!" And Tonbo's hand left Sasuke's as she ran up to greet Hinashou.

Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets before walking over to Hinashou as well.

"Hey," Hinashou grinned.

"What are you doing here?" Tonbo asked him.

"Sorry, I'm a little late. I was planning on meeting you two by the school but I started walking about the time school ended," he rubbed the back of his neck.

"You didn't have to come, we would still see each other when we got home."

Hinashou grinned again, "Well it isn't like I have anything better to do. It's boring without both of you around."

"Come on, we have to get home," Sasuke started walking. "By the looks of it, Tonbo has a lot of work to do."

Hinashou and Tonbo both looked at all the papers in Tonbo's hand. "What's all of that?" asked Hinashou.

"Since I'm in an upper level class I have to catch up on all the things they learned that I haven't yet," she explained.

"Well that sounds boring. Are you still going to be able to play today?"

"If I finish in time," they both sped up their pace to catch up to Sasuke. "Oh yeah, before I forget, my sensei told me to stay late after school tomorrow."

"You got in trouble on the first day? I didn't expect that from you," Hinashou gave her a look.

"I didn't get in trouble. Since I can't use jutsu, my sensei told me he would teach me something that I can do with the amount of chakra that I have. He said that the other students don't know how to do it."

"What is he going to teach you?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know, he didn't say. But I'll tell you about it tomorrow."

"If it's anything cool, you better show us how to do it too," Hinashou told her.

They walked the rest of the way home mostly listening to Hinashou go on and on about anything he could think of. He hadn't gotten to talk to either of them all day.

After school the next day, Hinashou met with Sasuke under the tree outside the school grounds and they walked home without Tonbo. She got home only 15 minutes after they had.

Tonbo knocked on the door and waited. When Sasuke and Hinashou opened the door they found themselves looking up.

Tonbo was upside down with her feet on the ceiling of the porch. "T-tonbo? Whoa that is so cool! How are you doing that?" Hinashou was excited.

"Sorry, can't tell you. This gives me the advantage of always having the high ground. Maybe this will even things out between us for now. I'm not going to keep losing to the two of you in our sparing matches," Tonbo gave them a smug look.

The boys were both too short to reach her, but from inside the house, Itachi noticed her long hair hanging down. He heard Sasuke and Hinashou trying to talk her into coming down. He walked to the door.

"Tonbo," Itachi's voice got everyone's attention. "Come down, you don't gain anything of value by taunting your brothers. You wanted me to tutor you so that you can get your homework done faster, didn't you?"

Tonbo walked down the side of the wall, "Yes of course. Sorry." She followed Itachi inside.

Itachi had always been tough on her and distant, but Tonbo admired everything about him. She sought his approval more than anyone's. He always looked after her and she knew he had to care about her, even though he didn't always show it.

* * *

**One Month Later**

It happened for the first time about a month into school. Late at night, when everyone was asleep, Tonbo's symbols appeared on her body. She was cast away into a different time. Every heartbeat wasn't just her own. Every breath didn't just fill her own lungs. Every thought and every moment didn't just belong to her.

Mikoto burst through the door to Tonbo's bedroom to see her lying in bed motionless. Her symbols soon faded from her body and Mikoto took a hesitant step into her room.

"Tonbo?" came Mikoto's weak and shaken voice.

Tonbo opened her eyes and sat up at the sound of her voice being called. She had blood dripping down the corners of her mouth.

"Mother? My dream... it felt so real." Tonbo then collapsed.

Mikoto rushed to her side to see that she was no longer conscious. She picked her up and carried her out of the room. "Fugaku! Come quick! Take Tonbo to the hospital right now!" she called out.

Fugaku heard his wife and came running to her side. Upon seeing Tonbo in Mikoto's arms, he took the girl from Mikoto and immediately took off to the hospital.

Mikoto ran over to Itachi's room and slid open the door. "Itachi, I need you to stay here with Sasuke. I'll be back later."

She didn't wait for a response, but instead slid the door closed again and took off out the front door.

Fugaku burst through the hospital doors and a nurse came running over to his side to see what was wrong. "What happened?" she asked calmly but quickly.

"I don't know, but she needs help, she was unconscious just a minute ago and she's bleeding somewhere!" Fugaku sputtered out.

Tonbo's eyes were now open but she was completely limp and didn't blink. "She appears to be in shock," the nurse turned back toward the hospital staff who were now moving into action. "We don't have time for customary methods, we need medical ninja in here now!" she ordered without hesitation.

Some of the hospital staff took Tonbo away on a gurney. The nurse stayed with Fugaku. "I'm sure she'll be okay, please come with me," she ushered him out of the emergency room to a waiting area.

"Will you tell me what's going on? Do you know what happened to her?" Fugaku was frantic.

"Please calm down, I'll tell you everything I know as soon as I get reported to. I need you to fill out some paperwork in the mean time. Can you do that for me?"

Fugaku was looking over her shoulder the whole time. "Sir," the woman looked him in the eyes intently, beckoning his attention back on to her. When Fugaku's eyes had refocused on the nurse in front of him, she continued. "She will be okay. Konoha's doctors are beyond excellent, and they will figure out what's wrong in order to save her. She will still be here tomorrow, I promise you that."

In the nursing profession, is was risky to promise anything. That was the first rule when dealing with a patient's loved ones, never make a promise you can't be certain of. Although the nurse had gotten Fugaku to calm down and fill out the paperwork, she still broke the most essential rule.

"Alright, I'll be back when I know anything. Wait here," she walked off when Fugaku nodded.

She came back a few hours later. Fugaku stood up from his seat when he saw the nurse coming. "Sorry to make you wait. She's fine, but she's sleeping right now."

Fugaku let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you. Do you know what happened?"

Mikoto was sitting in the chair next to Fugaku, she was on the edge of her seat. She wasn't sure what had happened, but she was nervous for the answer to come.

"Well not really. She suffered from damage to most, if not all of her internal organs. The doctors couldn't explain how the damage was inflicted, but there are hints."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Fugaku.

"The areas affected made a perfect map of where her chakra network lines her organs. This suggests that this has something to do with her chakra network. Although, we've never seen anything like this before. So we can't tell you anything specific," the nurse then looked down at the clipboard in her hand. "You put down the name "Tonbo Uchiha", is that correct?"

Fugaku nodded, "Yes that is correct."

"Alright, and you put down "father" for your relationship with her?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, but I must ask, are you her biological father?"

"No, I'm not. Is that a problem?" Fugaku was a bit uneasy, but he hid it well.

"No, it isn't a problem. But I heard that someone has been trying to adopt a girl by the name of Tonbo Uchiha for almost year, but both her biological parents are still alive and well. I don't mean to pry, but is that the reason you haven't been able to adopt her?"

Mikoto rose from her seat, "That isn't any of your business!"

"Oh, right. A thousand pardons," she bowed her head low to both Mikoto and Fugaku.

"Just tell us what's relevant and leave out the rest," came Mikoto's reply through gritted teeth. Mikoto was rarely angry, but this was one of the few topics she had grown especially sensitive to.

"Alright then," the nurse straightened herself and regain composure. "It's early in the morning and she won't be discharged from the hospital until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. I suggest you go home and get as much sleep as you can before coming back." The nurse started to turn to leave, but stopped herself as if she had just remembered something crucial. "Oh, and one more thing. The Hokage order that if Tonbo Uchiha was to ever turn up in the hospital, that it be reported to him immediately. So he said he would be coming as soon as she wakes up."

"The Hokage? Why does he want to know when she ends up in the hospital?" Fugaku's suspicions were ever growing. He had suspected for a while now that information about the clans plans had been leaking out to the old man. And now, Fugaku felt like that might be confirmed. But he still couldn't be sure of the Hokage's intentions with Tonbo. What could he want to know?

"You're not asking the right person. I'm just a nurse, I wouldn't know a thing like that."

"Fine," Mikoto had her arms crossed and you could still see the suppressed anger on her face. Fugaku turned to look at his wife. "We'll come back when it's light out. Fugaku, we should go home. There isn't anything we can do right now. Sasuke has school in the morning and you have work with the police force. There's no sense in staying for now."

"Very well then," he turned to say his last words to the nurse. "We will be leaving." And with that, he walked past the nurse and out the doors. Mikoto followed.

A couple hours later, the third Hokage showed up at the hospital at first light. The first thing he did was go over the findings with the doctors. They explained to him about as much as the nurse had explained to Fugaku and Mikoto.

"Hm, this is all very intriguing. Did you search her entire body?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked while stroking his beard.

"Yes, we did not find anything out of the ordinary," one of the doctors informed. "But Lord Hokage, may I ask, what were you looking for?"

"Now that I couldn't tell you. But I think I know the man that could answer that question." The Hokage seemed to think for a moment as he drew in a long breath as he smoked his pipe. "Have her brought to the council chamber as soon as she wakes up. That is, if she's well enough. I need to go and round up some people for a meeting. We will await her arrival. Please keep me informed on her progress."

"Yes my Lord!" the doctor bowed low at the waist. The Hokage departed to gather the people that he deemed would need to be present.

Tonbo didn't wake up until well past four in the afternoon. Fugaku and Mikoto had visited earlier in the day but left since she wasn't awake at the time. Even Itachi came by and he sat beside her for several hours before returning home.

The doctors checked her and found that she was in perfect health. She told them that she felt fine, so they brought her to the council chamber as ordered by the Hokage.

Once they had arrived, the doctors only opened the door for Tonbo and told her to go inside, but refused to go in themselves.

She entered the room and saw that there were only five other people in the room.

"Welcome young one," the third Hokage motioned for her to come further into the room.

The door was shut behind her. "Why did you want me to come here?" she asked him.

"Well you see, no one seems to know what happened to you, and I'm curious as to what occurred. Tell me, do you remember what happened to you?"

Tonbo thought for a minute. "I was asleep and I had a dream."

"A dream, hm? What was it like?"

"I remember everything about it. It wasn't like the dreams I've had before, it was so real. I could feel everything as if I were there..." she trailed off after that.

The Hokage clutched his chin with his thumb and forefinger. "Were you awakened from your dream by something?"

"No, not by something. I just woke up, and I was in my bed like usual. But I hurt all over, and that's when I heard my mother call my name from the doorway. I remember that I looked at her, but after that, I was in the hospital. I don't remember anything clearly until I woke up in the hospital a half hour ago."

"I see, so you don't know what happened to yourself either." He then turned to the man standing off to the side. "Yakuni, I'm sure you know why I asked you to come here. Do you have anything to say on the matter?"

Tonbo looked over at the man the third was addressing, and to her surprise, it was Mikoto's father. "Mikoto told me that she felt the same feeling as when she had first met Tonbo. And when she entered the room, there was green light, lighting up the room. Although she said she wasn't sure where it was coming from because it vanished too quickly. She also said that it looked familiar to her, but she doesn't remember seeing anything like it before." He stopped talking as if Tonbo wasn't in the room when he turned towards her. "But I think I know what happened."

"Grandfather?" Tonbo said in a small voice.

Yakuni narrowed his eyes at her ever so slightly. "I am not your grandfather, and no matter what Mikoto tells you, my daughter is not your mother."

Tonbo's eyes widened at the surprise of his words. Her eyes blurred as she fought back her tears.

"Yakuni, I suggest you get to the point," came the voice of a very bandaged Danzo.

Yakuni gave him a glance, "Very well then. This child has power you wouldn't believe. A power you can feel emanate from her. The day she was brought to me, I attempted to seal away her chakra."

There was a gasp heard from one of the village elders, Koharu. Yakuni continued anyway, "However, I now believe that it may not have worked the way I had intended. I believe that she has a way of accessing her chakra, but I doubt she is aware of this. I know that the seal is currently preventing her from using her chakra, as I cannot feel it. So if she does have a way to access her chakra, she would have to force it to separate from the seal, which would cause great tension in her chakra network. This would explain why she had internal bleeding around her chakra network. But even more than that, I believe this would explain what happened to the Leaf shinobi a year ago."

Tonbo suddenly had fear strike her heart. What did he mean by that?

"The doctors noted that she had scar tissue in the exact same places on her internal organs, which is what prevented the damage from being serious this time."

Everyone in the room was dead silent. Everyone was still processing Yakuni's words through their heads. Tonbo was frozen in place and too afraid to move.

It was Danzo that spoke up first, "Can you prove this?"

The third Hokage seemed to concur, "Yes, this is all very intriguing, but we can't take this seriously if there is no way to prove its accuracy."

"I've already thought about that. She has to have some way of focusing her chakra to forcibly separate it from the seal, and in order to do that, my guess is that she would have to use a hand seal." He turned to Tonbo, "As I understand it, you don't use hand seals in school because you don't have enough able chakra to preform jutsu, am I correct?"

"Well... yes," Tonbo avoided eye-contact.

"Do you still know the different hand seals?"

She nodded. "Good, I'd like to ask you to go through each of them, one at a time. Can you do that?"

"Well, I've never practiced them before... but yes." Tonbo looked to the others in the room. They all seemed to be anticipating her following through with her agreement.

She spread her legs apart and bent her knees in the stance she had been taught. She took in a deep breath and began to form hand seals one after another. As she expected, nothing was happening each time she formed a hand seal.

But when she put her hand in the hand seal with her index finger and her middle finger pointed upward together in front of her chest, her symbols began to glow.

Everyone seated was now out of their chairs looking at Tonbo intently. Tonbo quickly released the hand seal and gasped sharply. The symbols didn't fade from her.

Her mind was soon flooded with information. She understood everything that was going on around her, she could feel _everything._

She suddenly remembered how this all felt, and what it all meant. She could sense everything. She could hear people's thoughts, she could feel every movement they made. It was as if she could see in every direction, even if her eyes were closed. She could "hear" things being said yards away. Suddenly everything felt simple, but Tonbo was still afraid of what was happening. This meant that Yakuni might be right.

"How do I make it stop?!" she screeched in terror.

"Focus your mind on the way you felt before you formed the hand seal," came Yakuni's voice.

Tonbo realized that she was hyperventilating, so she took in some slower but shaky breaths and tried to do as Yakuni had told her. Once she was calm, she was able to stop her flow of chakra, and her symbols disappeared.

"She certainly is different," Homura, the other village elder remarked.

"I believe I've seen all I needed," stated the Hokage. "Tonbo, you may leave. There is someone outside the doors waiting to escort you home."

Tonbo was very unsure of what they would do now, but all that she could do, was do as she was told and leave. She knew that it was Itachi who was waiting for her. She had felt his presence earlier. She went home with him.

The council chamber was silent for a while until none of them could sense Tonbo and Itachi's presence any longer. They all knew that each of them were thinking some of the same things: was Tonbo a threat, what does this mean for the village, and what should they do about her?

"Lord Hokage, if I may," Yakuni began again. "She is very dangerous, and the way she's being raised, my fear is that she will grow to hate the Uchiha clan, and the village. With her power, I don't believe there is anyone in the village who could stop her."

"What do you mean by that? What ability could she possess that could really be that powerful?" asked Koharu with serious concern on her face.

"It's because of the type of power she possesses." He went on to explain about how she can use her chakra not only to sense everything, but how she can also use it as a weapon. He also suggested that she was the one who killed the Leaf shinobi a year ago and that it was no accident.

"Even if she did kill the man, we don't know what happened that would have provoked her into killing him. She could have had probable cause to kill him," said Homura.

"I can agree with that, but there are always other options besides taking someone's life. She didn't seem to hesitate to do so. That is what concerns me the most. The time between when the neighbors reported to have heard the screams and the time Itachi reported to have entered the house was different by less than minutes. I know that she is just a child, but we have to do something," Yakuni spoke warningly.

"If she is as powerful as you claim she is, we could put that power to use for us. She's still young enough to enter into the ROOT program. We could train her to be loyal only to the Leaf, she would follow all orders without question or hesitation," Danzo offered.

"No, turning her into an emotionless assassin would probably only make matters worse," said the third.

"I agree, as long as she holds herself morally responsible for her actions, she'll be less likely to do something rash," said Homura.

"The problem with that is that we can't choose her morals for her," argued Koharu.

"She may be young, but she's already been through more hardships than many adults. Her mind as well as her resolve are unstable," injected Yakuni.

"Well than what can we do? It isn't like we can lock her up," Koharu thought out loud.

"Or can we?" asked Homura.

The Hokage simply sat quietly and listened as the other four began to formulate a plan on how they could get away with keeping her somewhere far away from the village.

"Hiruzen, what do you think?" Koharu asked once she realized he hadn't said anything on the subject.

"Taking a child away from her family, away from her friends and locking her up with former ANBU members to make sure she doesn't escape, is out of the question. That, if anything, would turn her against the Leaf."

"Lord Hokage, you must also realize that this will be a way to protect the child as well. If word gets out that she has such unbelievable power, you can be certain that people will come looking for her. If not to kidnap her, then to kill her. You can't get around that fact," Danzo's composure was unmatched.

Hiruzen thought for a while. He looked up at all of them once he had reached his decision. "I care about every member of the Leaf village, and if this is the only way we can ensure her safety, then for the time being... I will allow it."

Once everything had been set up, the third Hokage approached Tonbo about the subject first. The news shattered all of Tonbo's plans for her future. She no longer had everything planned out and she was afraid of where this future would take her.

She made a request to the Hokage to leave the village for a short while. When he asked her why she wanted to leave the village, she told him about her dream. Her reasoning intrigued the Hokage, so he agreed to let her go. But she would be accompanied by two ANBU members.

The Hokage told her that she could leave once he got permission from the Kage of the village she described, for her to enter their village. Tonbo told him that if she didn't leave immediately, she wouldn't make it in time and she would miss what she was looking for.

Sarutobi eventually let her go but then he had to explain everything to Fugaku and Mikoto. When he informed them of where Tonbo had run off to, their reaction was the same: "Suna?!"

It took the usual three days to get to the Sand village. They were stopped by Sand shinobi at the village entrance for obvious reasons.

"If we may speak to the Kazekage, we can explain. The Hokage did send out word that we would be coming and we would like permission to spend the day here," said on of the ANBU members.

"We may have a treaty with Konoha, but that doesn't mean that we aren't still suspicions of two ANBU members showing up without warning. I'm sure you understand, Sand shinobi must protect their Kazekage," the man at the entrance grinned in an almost taunting manner.

"But I have to go look, there isn't much time left!" Tonbo shouted up at the Sand shinobi who previously hadn't acknowledged her existence.

"Oh so we have a difficult, little urchin here as well? Sorry, but I can't allow you to pass."

"Tonbo glared up at the man, "If I don't go now, I might not make it."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but unfortunately for you, I don't care eith-"

He was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. The person looked middle-aged, and he had fiery red hair.

"Lord Kazekage," the man immediately bowed and stepped aside.

The Kazekage looked over the ANBU members and then Tonbo. "Tell me, what brings you to my village? The Hokage was very unspecific, I must know the nature of your mission."

"Lord Kazekage," one of the ANBU members bowed. "This isn't what we would call a mission. The Hokage asked us to escort this child here, she says she has to find something."

"Oh," he turned to Tonbo. "And what might you be looking for?"

Tonbo thought that she would have to be careful about what she said, but she still wanted to tell the truth. "I'm looking for a person I saw in a dream. I know it must sound silly, but I just want to see if they're where I saw them. If not, then I'll just go home. I just have to know."

The Kazekage seemed to think it over. He didn't see harm in letting a little girl with no power to be sensed into the village for a day. He was curious about the child. But he didn't want the ANBU members snooping around.

"Alright, you can look for this person from your dream, but you have to leave before the sun sets tonight." He looked at the ANBU members, "You two have to stay out here, I'm sure you understand why."

"Yes Lord Kazekage," the both bowed.

The Kazekage began to walk off, so Tonbo went past the guards and into the city. She began to run as she recognized all the buildings. The people walking by were in sync with how she remembered her dream.

As she neared the building she was aiming for, she saw him. There, in front of the very edifice so clearly engraved into her memory was a little boy with messy red hair and dark rings around his eyes, looking down at his feet as he walked.

"Hey!" she called out to him waving as she ran.

The boy looked up at her.

* * *

A/N: For those of you who freaked out during the first scene of this chapter, I assure you, Sasuke and Tonbo do NOT like each other like that. And I finally gave you the name of Mikoto's father... the truth is that i just couldn't come up with a name for him until now. Read and Review!


	9. Secrets Revealed:The Past Final Part

A/N: This is the last chapter before we get back to the main plot! Wow, it better be good!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden.

* * *

**Chapter 9:**

**Secrets Revealed: The Past Final Part**

"Hey!" she called out to him waving as she ran.

The boy looked up at her. At first he didn't really believe that she was talking to him, but she made direct eye contact with him. He stopped walking and waited for her, following her every movement with his eyes.

When she was only a few feet from him, she stopped and put her hands on her knees panting. She took a moment to catch her breath before she straightened herself and looked back at him. He was actually an inch shorter than she was.

"I'm glad you're still here," she said with a pleasant smile on her face.

"Still?" the little boy asked in a meek voice.

Tonbo knew that he would say that, and she knew exactly how she would respond. "Yeah, I came all the way from another village. I was hoping that you would be here."

The boy was visibly confused and uncomfortable, and so she continued. "Well, I was wondering if you wanted to play with me for the day. I know this must be strange, but I was hoping that we could be friends."

Beyond this point, she had no idea how he would respond, but she still hoped for the best. The boy's eyes widened, he looked shocked at her.

At seeing his initial reaction, Tonbo lost most of her confidence in talking to a complete stranger. "W-well, um... if you don't want to that's okay... I-I wasn't really sure if-" he cut her off with his smile.

It was strange, the boy so timid a moment ago, but now he looked at Tonbo as if he had been waiting for her. Tonbo grew more curious about him.

"Friends? We could be friends?" There was a certain longing in the boy's eyes that Tonbo understood. Before Sasuke and Hinashou, Tonbo didn't have friends at all, and she was always lonely. She may not have known what the boy had been through, and for all she knew he may not have been through difficult things the way she had, but she knew that friendship is valued by almost everyone.

"Of course, do you know any fun games we could play?" Tonbo thought it would be polite to ask.

He looked down and thought, "No, not really."

Tonbo grinned, "Okay then..." she lurched forward and tapped his shoulder with her hand. "Tag!" she shouted and started to run off watching over her shoulder and laughing.

It took the boy a minute to understand. He had never played with other kids before in his life, but he had seen other kids playing before. He knew how to play tag only because he was always watching kids play while he sat alone.

But after realization hit him, he ran after her. As they played there game, he was smiling. Finally, someone wasn't too afraid of him to play with him. He couldn't be more content, but at the same time, he was afraid. He knew that since she was from another village, it was likely that she wasn't afraid of him because she didn't know who he was. Or rather, what he was host to.

For that reason, she couldn't know. He wouldn't tell her, he didn't want her to be afraid of him like everyone else has always been.

Meanwhile, the Kazekage had his third eye following them around. He was initially surprised that she had walked up to Gaara like she had always known him, but there was something that intrigued him even more. _Hmm... when the girl tagged him, Gaara's sand didn't get in the way. His sand didn't even react._

This was all very interesting to the Kazekage. Although a child tagging Gaara didn't pose any sort of threat, the Kazekage still had expected the sand to react when she moved towards Gaara suddenly. He would be keeping an eye on them for as long as she stayed in the village.

Gaara and Tonbo played almost every game they could think of until they were out of breath and lying on their backs, breathing hard. The other thing they did, was talk. At first, neither of them knew what to talk about, but eventually they both opened up at least some bit. There were things that neither of them wanted to tell each other, but they did talk about their families.

Gaara didn't have all that much to say about his own family, he was always very isolated. Tonbo eventually told Gaara that Fugaku and Mikoto were trying to adopt her. Gaara was of course curious about what happened to her real mother and father.

Tonbo told him about how she had come to live with the Uchihas, leaving out most of the details about what her parents use to do to her. But that conversation made her realize that she had no idea what had become of her parents since the night she left. She never really missed them, but she felt bad for not knowing what had happened to them.

The day went by faster than expected and they really had spent the entire day with each other. It was almost sundown when the Kazekage came back to the village entrance.

The two ANBU men were still outside the gates waiting for Tonbo to come back. When they saw the Kazekage walking towards them, they both stiffened and fixed their postures. "Lord Kazekage," they bowed.

"It's sundown, do you know where the girl you were escorting is?" he asked in a testing manner.

"No, she is still somewhere inside the city," one of them responded.

"Come, I will take you to fetch her," he gave a motion with his hand and turned to walk.

The ANBU followed closely as to not alarm any of the citizens of Suna. He led the men through the sand streets lined by sand buildings, to where Tonbo and Gaara were sitting and talking.

Tonbo had her back towards the direction of the approaching men, but Gaara's eyes widened when he saw his father.

Tonbo turned around to see what had caught Gaara's eyes. "Time's up. We have to escort you home now," one of the ANBU men told her.

Tonbo looked back to Gaara and opened her mouth to say something when a hand reached in front of her. One of the men had come over to help her off the ground, but this was really more of a gesture to get her to come more quickly.

She accepted the hand and then was pulled along back towards the village entrance. "Bye!" she called waving. She didn't smile, and he didn't either. She decided to walk backwards in order to see the boy as she left.

Gaara stood up but stayed standing in the same place. "Bye," he whispered, mostly to himself. But then he realized something.

He ran after her. "Wait! You never told me your name!" he called out to her. Gaara realized that he hadn't told her his name either, but that was because he was afraid she might have heard his name before, and not in a good way. He figured that at this point it didn't matter to him whether she'd heard of him before, she was his first friend.

Gaara could see Tonbo tug her hand away from the man and she said something to him that Gaara couldn't hear. She then ran over to him while the men escorting her watched from a distance.

"How about we make a deal?" was the first thing Tonbo said.

"A deal?" Gaara wasn't sure where this was going.

"Yeah, we won't tell each other our names right now."

"But then when will we?"

"Next time we see each other."

"But how do we know if we'll ever see each other again?" Gaara wasn't sure about this.

"We know because we have to tell each other our names. This way we'll have to see each other again if we want to know the other person's name. That way, there'll be a next time," Tonbo smiled at her plan.

"Uh... okay," it was obvious that Gaara wasn't reassured that they would see each other again in any way.

"Listen," Tonbo began to explain. "The reason I came here is actually because I had a dream about coming here. You see, I'm going to be taken away from my village and from my family very soon. I'm supposed to be locked away for a long time." Tonbo looked up at the few visible stars that shined even with some sunlight left. "I used to have everything planned out for myself. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted for my life and exactly how I was going to get that. But now, things have changed. I won't be able to live my life according to a plan anymore," she looked back at Gaara. "Because I have no idea what lies ahead in my future now. Believe it or not, coming here made me realize that. The way I saw it, being locked away meant that I had no future anymore, and I would only be forgotten. Even though I saw you walking in front of that building in my dream, confirming that you'd be here made my realize that I still have a future, and one that I cannot see. I came here looking for hope, and you gave me that hope. That's how I know that we will see each other again."

Gaara simply stared at Tonbo for a while. He hadn't expected all of this, and he didn't know how to respond to her. She flashed him a smile to affirm her new trust in him.

Gaara didn't smile back, he couldn't. So instead he said, "It's a deal then."

Tonbo's smile faded as she was a bit surprised, but it soon returned and with a new brightness. "Okay! Then until next time," she waved to him as she went to join her escort once again.

"Yeah, bye," Gaara said, this time in a voice that was audible to her. He gave her a wave and watched her until she had completely disappeared from his sight.

He hung his head and started walking, watching his feet with sad eyes.

His father, who was leaning against a wall, continued to watch Gaara. _That girl m__a__y have shown Gaara friendship, but she has only made his suffering worse. Now that Gaara has felt friendship, his longing for that kind of relationship will grow. His desire for companionship and his loneliness will be much worse. I can't say for certain how much longer he will last without wreaking __havoc, he will be six in a little more than a month. _The Kazekage continued to think on as Gaara made his way to the central tower.

* * *

**At the Uchiha's**

Fugaku and Mikoto left the job of telling Sasuke and Hinashou where Tonbo had gone and what would be happening to her as soon as she came back, to Itachi. Neither of the boys took it very well. Neither of them would say anything about the subject. They both had things to think about, and it would be at least six days before Tonbo would return.

On the sixth night of Tonbo's absence, Hinashou let himself into Sasuke's house. He closed the door behind him, trying his best to be quiet. It was late and he knew that if Mikoto found him, she would take him back to his house.

The door did make a soft noise when he shut it, and he froze in place waiting and listening to see if it had disturbed anyone. When he didn't hear anything he turned around to almost crash into Itachi who had been standing over him, with an expressionless face.

Hinashou jumped backward as he was startled. He let out a noise but quickly covered his mouth.

"Hinashou, what are you doing here?" Itachi asked him.

Hinashou slowly removed his hand from over his mouth. "If Tonbo didn't spend a day in Suna, she should be back tonight, right?" he whispered.

Itachi took a moment before he responded, and Hinashou could swear he saw a faint smile cross Itachi's lips. "Alright, we'll wait to see if she comes." Itachi started to walk off, leaving Hinashou by the door in shock. "Sasuke asked the same thing."

When Itachi came back, he had with him Sasuke, and some blankets and cushions. "What are those for?" he asked in curiosity.

"If we're going to be camping out on the porch all night, we'll want these," Itachi told him.

Hinashou gave a smile, but even so, he still wasn't happy. None of them were. Each of them had mixed feeling about everything that was going on, and Sasuke and Hinashou weren't sure what to do with all their feelings.

They set up on the porch but they all stayed standing. Hinashou chose to stand on the edge of the porch, watching as far down the road as he could see. Sasuke leaned himself against the wall of his house and Itachi stood somewhat in between them.

They stayed in silence for a long while before Itachi decided he had to ask, "What are you each planning on saying to Tonbo when she returns?"

Sasuke and Hinashou both looked over at Itachi. If they were honest, neither of them had really thought about that yet. Hinashou then turned his entire body to face Itachi. He balled his hands up into fists and focused his eyes on the ground in front of Itachi's feet.

"What is there to say really? Goodbye?" He gritted his teeth, "Even when she gets back, she's just going to be taken away from us again, so what's the point?" He was clenching his fists so hard they were shaking at his sides. He looked up to make eye contact with Itachi and despite the fact he wouldn't blink, tears still streamed down his cheeks. "So you tell me, what is there to say?!" he yelled.

Itachi was unwavering at Hinashou's release of pent up emotions. He knew it would come out eventually, and it was better now than when Tonbo gets back. "Hinashou," Itachi was as calm as ever. "Don't cry. Tonbo will need all of us to have courage for her. If she sees you cry, she won't want to leave, and you know that this is for her own protection. I know that she is already reluctant. We have to be strong for her sake."

Hinashou's face soften and he released his fists. He looked back down but didn't bother to focus his eyes on anything. He thought back onto all the times he had spent with Tonbo. All his memories of her were filled with the three of them laughing and going on adventures. They had fun even if they were just talking, and the more he thought about it, he didn't have very many memories without her anymore. Her leaving was unimaginable, but there was also something else that he realized. She probably couldn't imagine leaving them either, and she was probably afraid.

Sasuke, who hadn't said a word, had his arms crossed and was still leaning against the side of the house. "Hmph, not worth crying over anyway," he said to himself so that it was barely audible.

Hinashou heard ever word. He re-clenched his fists and turned to Sasuke. "What did you say?!" he burst out in rage.

Sasuke simply turned his head away from Hinashou with a sullen expression. This only made Hinashou angrier. He moved and grabbed Sasuke by the collar, forcing him out of his leaning position. Sasuke let his arms fall to his sides, he didn't struggle.

Now that Hinashou knew he had Sasuke's full attention, he let all his anger out. "At least everyone knows that I care! What happened to you?! Ever since you heard that she left for Suna you've been like this! She considers you her brother! And you call her your sister, so why are you acting like you no longer care about her?! I know that you still do, no matter how you act!"

Sasuke gave him a hard and serious look. "She left without saying a word to us, she could have come to us, and we would have been there for her... but she decided to run away instead! We had to learn about what had happened from someone else! We had to find out that our sister can be more powerful than any of us and that if word gets out, she'll be targeted by enemies and allies alike, from Itachi, who was told by our parents, who were told by the Hokage! She doesn't deserve our forgiveness until she apologizes!"

Hinashou was now livid. He pushed Sasuke back against the wall, gripping to his collar even tighter. On instinct, Sasuke grabbed onto Hinashou's arm to keep him from chocking him, but he still didn't struggle to get out of his grip.

"Sasuke how could you say that! We've both been by Tonbo's side for years! We both know her, but she lives with you, so you should know her even better than I do! And I know that she has to be scared!" he screamed as he visibly shook in anger.

"Being scared doesn't excuse her!" Sasuke shot back.

"No, but even though sometimes it's easy to forget, Tonbo's still a girl, and it's different when girls are scared!"

"I don't care what she is, it doesn't matter to me!"

That was all Hinashou could take. He began to raise his fist, ready to strike. "Hinashou, don't," came Itachi's ever so calm voice.

Itachi's voice awoke Hinashou from his enraged mindset and brought him back with realization. His angry expression melted and his eyes wandered to his raised fist. He slowly lowered his hand and loosened his grip before he released Sasuke completely and took a step back. "Sorry," he told Sasuke without making eye contact.

Sasuke said nothing. "Sasuke, you should listen to Hinashou. Being angry at Tonbo won't help anything, it will only stress her further. Don't let her leave on bad terms. That way, when we get her back, and we will get her back, you can all still pursue your dreams together."

Now it was Sasuke's expression that soften and turned downcast. In truth, Sasuke knew that he would miss Tonbo, and he had tried to hide it behind his anger.

Then, Fugaku slid the front door open and leaned out to find the three boys staring back at him. "What are the three of you doing out here? It's really late and I heard yelling," asked Fugaku.

Hinashou quickly wiped the tear streaks from his cheeks. Itachi was the one who spoke up for the other two. "We're waiting for Tonbo to return home."

"I that so?" Fugaku questioned.

"I'll look after these two while we're out here," Itachi reassured.

Fugaku took a minute before sighing. "Alright, wake me and your mother up when she gets here."

"Of course," Itachi responded.

Fugaku slid the door shut and went back to bed. The boys all finally sat down. After a while, both Sasuke and Hinashou had fallen asleep and by that time, it was early in the morning. Itachi knew that Tonbo and the ANBU assigned to escort her would have camped the night if they weren't already here, so he decided to carry the boys inside and put them in bed.

The next night, they all stationed themselves on the porch again, ready for Tonbo to return. They waited for hours and Hinashou was having trouble keeping his eyes open. They were all seated and leaning against the house.

Itachi heard footsteps. "She's coming," he said.

This brought Hinashou to his feet immediately, with his eyes wide awake. He sped to the edge of the porch and looked down the road. Sure enough, she was walking with ANBU on either side of her.

When they all came into the view of Itachi and Sasuke, they both got to there feet as well. The three arrivals stopped in front of the Uchiha house. Suddenly, another masked ANBU appeared in a puff of smoke.

"I have been sent here by the third Hokage to inform you that Tonbo Uchiha will have a week to prepare herself to leave and to say her goodbyes. Sasuke Uchiha is exempted from attending the Academy this week. And Itachi Uchiha is exempt from all missions for a week as well. At 9pm a week from tonight, Tonbo Uchiha is to meet with the Hokage at his office for her departure. That is all," the ANBU then disappeared in a puff of smoke as quickly as he had come.

Itachi and the two remaining ANBU exchanged nods. "We will leave you here," one of them told Tonbo, and then they too disappeared in a similar fashion.

There was silence for a while, everyone was just staring. Soon Tonbo couldn't take the blank expressions she was getting from her brothers and she hung her head so she wouldn't have to look at them. She opened her mouth several times trying to say something, but nothing would come out. She had no idea what she would say to them. She knew that they must have been angry and worried.

She reverted back into herself as she found herself being consumed by the thick, heavy atmosphere. Then suddenly, she found her head behind Hinashou's shoulder as he hugged her tightly.

"It's okay," his voice was calm and gentle. "We'll always be here for you. Even when your gone, we'll be waiting for you until we can get you back. None of us will go anywhere, we'll always be waiting for you right here."

Tonbo gasped softly. Looking over Hinashou's shoulder at Itachi and Sasuke, she saw that they were both giving her soft, reassuring smiles. She began to sob loudly. "Thank you... thank you so much."

* * *

The week went by quickly with everyone spending as much time with Tonbo as they could. Tonbo was a bit uncomfortable with all the attention, but she knew that it was for them as much as it was for her.

Itachi was the only who didn't wait until the last minute to say his goodbyes. He found her sitting alone on the porch one night, dangling her feet over the edge.

He walked up to her and sat down beside her. "What are you doing out here at this time of night?" he asked her.

Tonbo didn't look at him, but chose to stare down at her feet. "Just thinking," she told him.

"What are you thinking about?"

Tonbo hesitated before speaking, "Just about everything that's happened. So much has happened, I don't think I've really processed it all yet. I'll be leaving in two days, and the truth is... I'm terrified. Maybe that's expected, but that isn't of any comfort. I just don't want everyone to grow up without me, and then when I come back, to have no one remember me."

"Tonbo, none of us will ever forget you. Whether you realize it or not, you've become a big part of each of our lives. None of us want you to leave, but we also want you to be safe and protected. We know that we can't protect you 24/7 by ourselves, otherwise we would have fought with the council to keep you here. So you don't have to worry. And besides, you'll grow up along with us, just in a different place," Itachi comforted.

"But Itach-" Itachi interrupted Tonbo.

"Tonbo, you will always be my sister." He leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

Tonbo was shocked speechless. She had never seen this kind of behavior from Itachi, but for the first time ever, she knew without any doubt that Itachi cared about her. This was the first time he didn't seem distant to her, and the first time his presence made her feel warm.

All the others said goodbye to her as they were seeing her off. Mikoto's words were, "Once we adopt you, we can have you released. I promise you we'll never stop fighting to bring you back home."

The other three just hugged her and said goodbye. She left for the tower that housed the Hokage's office. Once she arrived, everything was a sealed deal, and she was brought to a place underground and far away from the village. The location was so top secret, not even the people who built the place knew where it was.

Without Tonbo around, both Sasuke and Hinashou found a knew definition for melancholy. And they both found themselves thinking about her constantly.

One day, while Sasuke was at school, Iruka-sensei had let the class work on their homework for the ten remaining minutes of class. While some of the usual troublemakers were being scolded, and boy walked up to Sasuke.

The kid sighed, "Look, I know this is troublesome, but some girl asked me to ask you if you like girls with sort hair or long hair."

Not that Sasuke really cared to answer the kid's question, but with a quick glance around the room, he noticed that all the girls had sort hair. So without thinking, he answered, "Long."

"Thanks," the kid told him before walking back to a pink haired girl to report his findings.

It was then Sasuke thought about how Tonbo always kept her hair long. He remembered a conversation he had overheard between her and his mother soon after Tonbo had first come to live with them.

Sasuke had been walking down the hallway to his bedroom when he Tonbo yelling, "Ow! Ow!"

"Sorry Tonbo, your hair is just so tangled. The ends of your hair are split everywhere," Sasuke heard Mikoto's voice.

"It's okay, that's probably because I've never gotten a haircut."

"You've never had your hair cut before?"

"No, my parents never gave me one. And even if they had tried to take me to get a haircut, no one would ever have given me one," Tonbo replied.

"Hm... well then a haircut is long overdue. Why don't you get it cut short? I've seen many girls your age with short hair, and that way it will be a new look."

"No," Sasuke could hear the seriousness in Tonbo's voice. "Just because my parents neglected me, doesn't mean that I would want to change everything about myself. I like my hair long."

"I'm sorry." Sasuke could tell his mother hadn't expected that response. "I'll just trim the ends so that your hair can grow healthy, is that okay?"

"Yes."

Sasuke abruptly stood from his seat and collected his homework. He walked down the steps the rows of seats were on and straight past Iruka and out the door.

"Sasuke, class isn't over ye-" Iruka was interrupted by the sound of the bell signaling the end of class and the rush of students running out the classroom door to freedom.

Overtime, Sasuke and Hinashou slowly grew apart. Being with each other reminded them of Tonbo, so it got harder and harder for them to be around each other. Eventually neither of them had anything left to say to one another, and they stopped talking to each other all together. They were now strangers to one another.

* * *

**Age 8**

Tonbo had been put into a tank filled with liquid, and was strapped down to the bottom. She was under a very powerful jutsu that held her in a state of deep meditation. She was still conscious and was aware of her general surroundings.

She had deduced that the woman who cleaned the room she was kept in, as well as changed the filter on her tank and gave her nutrients through her IV, was an Uchiha. The woman may or may not have been aware that Tonbo could hear her because she would often speak to Tonbo when no one else was around.

She would talk about how Fugaku wanted to have someone on the inside, so he was the one who really put her in the position that got her there. The last day Tonbo heard her alive came with a particularly interesting one-sided conversation.

As the woman did her daily routine, she said some concerning things. "You know, Fugaku is getting tired of waiting. You may have been the plan at one point, but in here you're useless to him. It's been three years since Fugaku filed the paperwork to adopt you. If the papers don't go through soon, I'm sure he'll give up on you. We don't need you anyway, the Uchiha clan's power is undeniable."

The woman closed the area with the filter and moved over to her tray that had a syringe waiting on it. "It seems like Fugaku found an excuse to get me out of here. He's probably going to hold a meeting for the coup to overthrow the Hokage. Hn, for all I know he could end up telling me that we're striking tomorrow night. Looks like you won't be the end to the Leaf village after all. I guess the Hokage's plan to keep you here so that we couldn't use you against them worked well. Too bad for him, it won't save him."

Tonbo couldn't move, she had no way to communicate, and right now, she felt useless. She didn't want to believe that the Uchiha clan would do something like that. And she couldn't believe that Fugaku, who had been like a father to her, would ever use her. But listening to this made her extremely curious.

* * *

The next morning, Itachi, who was now captain of the ANBU black ops, went to see his grandfather. He visited the old man in his office in the library. When he came out, he had a freshly handwritten scroll in his hands.

He made his way to where the Naka shrine was located. He walked to the main hall and lifted up the seventh tatami mat from the far right. Underneath the mat was a secret passageway known only by the Uchiha. He walked down the stairs into a room with a stone tablet that had the Uchiha clan secrets inscribed on it.

He stood in front of it and stared for a moment before he walked up to it and placed the scroll on top. Before he left, he took time to think. Everything would happen later that night, and there was no longer anything anyone could do to stop it.

* * *

When night fell upon Konohagakure it wasn't at all peaceful. Tonbo couldn't get the words of the Uchiha woman out of her head, so she decided that she would use her chakra to sense what was going on in the Leaf village.

She was too far away to sense anything, so she used the scroll used for reverse summoning as a booster for the range of her chakra. With all the time spent sitting still, she had learned how to summon her chakra without using a hand seal, but this only worked while she was in this state of meditation.

What she saw, felt, and heard wasn't a meeting, nor was it a coup. She wasn't sure whether to believe that she was actually seeing this. It was Itachi, and he was... killing everyone.

Everyone in the Uchiha clan was being murdered out in the open... by her brother. She could see that already, almost the entire clan was dead. But what she saw next, terrified her.

Itachi came face to face with Hinashou. He looked older than the last time she had seen him. He had tears running down his cheeks, but he wasn't making any noise.

"Itachi," said Hinashou.

"Hinashou," Itachi acknowledge him. _No. _Tonbo thought to herself as she feared this was the end for Hinashou.

"I may not understand why you're doing this, but it doesn't matter to me. I need you to promise me something," Hinashou was in no position to negotiate, but it seemed he didn't care.

Itachi didn't say anything, but he waited, which let Hinashou know that Itachi was listening to him. "I need you to promise me that you won't hurt Tonbo, I don't want you to kill her."

This did prompt a response from Itachi. "What makes you say that?" Itachi was still stoic and hardened over.

Itachi's question made Hinashou briefly think back on all that led him to this point.

Ever since Tonbo came into his life, he's always had trouble saying no to her. The day he had met her, she had a cast on one of her arms and bandages all over her body, including one over her eye. He couldn't make out much of what she looked like, but she had long purple hair. That was what stood out to him.

He grew more and more curious about her as time passed. She was always trying to win his and Sasuke's acceptance. At first, neither of them would take her seriously. The first sparring match he had with her, he went easy on her and let her win. But she then called him out on that and told him to never go easy on her. She said that she will never get stronger if he's always letting her win.

The more he was around Tonbo, the more he took a liking to her. Even though he never said anything, the day Tonbo called him her brother hurt him more than it made him feel good. He knew then that she didn't think of him the same way as he was starting to think of her. He became jealous of all the time Sasuke got to spend alone with her.

The day his mother told him that he wouldn't be in the same class with Sasuke and Tonbo, he was crushed. Not because of their plans to all be on the same team, but because he knew that Sasuke would get to spend even more time alone with Tonbo than he already did.

What's worse is that after the first day of school, he saw Tonbo and Sasuke holding hands. He pretended not to notice and he put a smile on his face when Tonbo came to greet him, but inside he was dying.

_Yes, it's her smile. Her smile became what I lived for ever day._

When he found out that she was going to be taken away from the village, he couldn't help but think it might be for forever. He thought about her every single day she was gone. The more he thought about her, the more abundantly clear it became to him.

"I say that because... I love her." Upon hearing this, Tonbo's heart rate sped up. She had never realized... how oblivious she had been.

Hinashou thought he might have seen the faintest of smiles cross Itachi's lips, but it fled too fast to tell.

"You should know, Tonbo was never in any danger from me. She isn't an Uchiha and I have no way of finding her." Itachi informed him.

Seeing no reassurance in Hinashou's eyes, Itachi decided to continue. "But... I promise you that I will never harm Tonbo."

Hinashou's expression changed to one of relief and his tears began to flow more freely. "Thank-"

Hinashou was cut off by Itachi's kunai slitting his throat. Tonbo screamed on the inside as loud as she could, desperately trying to make a noise. The lights exploded all at once as her chakra overloaded the filaments that conduct the electricity. She felt the liquid in the tank drain around her, and tears were streaming down her face.

Hinashou sunk to his knees. He knew that he would die now, but the knowledge that Tonbo was safe from Itachi, left him at peace. He smiled before collapsing on the ground and bleeding out.

* * *

Hours later, the team taking care of Tonbo was able to send a message back to the Leaf and the report was given to the Hokage, waking him up from his slumber. He was also later informed of the mass killing that occurred in the Uchiha district. They were still searching for survivors.

"It appears that sometimes the world likes to fall apart all at once," the Hokage had a grave look on his face. "Keep searching for any survivors in the Uchiha district. We also need to send supplies to the team guarding the secret information." He always referred to Tonbo as "secret information" to those who didn't know about her so that they were sure not to question him.

"Yes my Lord," the man bowed and left.

The Hokage knew that he would have some explaining to do to the team guarding Tonbo if the reports were accurate.

He called an urgent meeting with the village elders as well as Danzo. "Tonbo Uchiha might know what happened last night. Being a child, she won't understand it. But this concerns me deeply. The child hasn't had human interaction in two years. She will need someone to talk to," the Hokage prompted.

"Well we can't have her talk to anyone, we would have to let her out if we were to allow that," Koharu warned.

"No, that isn't true. If she was able to sense what happened, she has a way to access her chakra and a way to sense what's going on in the Leaf village. You all know that Yakuni told us that Tonbo can hear people's thoughts, right?" the Hokage asked.

They nodded. "And how she can also send electrical signals to people's bodies?"

They nodded again. "He told me that if she does both at the same time, she can hear people's thoughts and let them hear her own. You can call it telepathy if you'd like."

"She can do something like that? If we were to use that during combat, any team could be unstoppable," Danzo rose from his seat.

"Yes, however, it takes extreme focus and perfectly precise chakra control. It isn't likely that she would be able to do that in the heat of a battle. It isn't likely she would be able to do it while she isn't in a meditative state."

"Hm... then if she can do that, it would be a good way for her to have human interaction. If she stays isolated for much longer, she'll go insane. And if that ever happens, we'll never be able to let her out," Homura thought out loud.

"Exactly the point. Yakuni also suggested that we have a person with the same chakra nature as her, it would be safest for the person receiving her chakra signals," the Hokage already had this planned out in his head, he just needed confirmation from the others.

"Alright, then we have to find a person we can trust that's chakra nature is lightning," Koharu concurred.

Eventually Kakashi Hatake was chosen and two weeks after the Uchiha Slaughtering, Tonbo had human interaction for the first time in two years. At first, Kakashi treated it like just a mission, but after a while, they both opened up to each other and became the people they poured out their feelings to. They ended up knowing each other better than anyone else ever could. And thus their unique relationship was formed.

* * *

A/N: What did you guys think? Read and Review!


	10. Secrets Revealed:The Unofficial Ninja

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden.

A/N: Hey guys! I knows it's been a while so just for you guys: cue the dramatic music...

* * *

**Previously on Secrets Revealed...**

Tsunade, the fifth Hokage, was made aware of Tonbo Uchiha's existence, a fact that had been kept secret from her by the village elders and Danzo. She and Kakashi went to free Tonbo from her forced state of deep meditation.

Since then, Tonbo had been under the care of Sakura while she regained her strength after lack of movement for almost eight years. Once released from the hospital, Tonbo goes "home", which is actually the house of Sasuke Uchiha, a rogue ninja who left Konoha all together.

Later, Tonbo brings flowers to put on the graves of her lost loved ones. She falls asleep in front of Hinashou Uchiha's grave when Shikamaru Nara finds her and wakes her. After they have a short conversation about Tonbo's "brothers", Tonbo leaves Shikamaru to go home.

Shikamaru then notices the surname on the headstone and runs after her.

_No, it can't be. That's... impossible. _He leaped up and dashed in the direction she headed. _Where would she have gone? If anything out of what she said was true, there's only one place she could have gone._

He sprinted down the path, went through one of the district gates, and caught up to her before she could get into the exact house Shikamaru had predicted she'd go to.

"Uchiha! You- walk- troublesomely fast," he said in between pants. She stopped in mid-step with her back turned towards him.

"The surname on that grave and all the graves around it was Uchiha. But that's impossible, there are only two Uchihas left, S-"

"Sasuke and Itachi," she broke in.

She still had her back towards him. "By what you said, Sasuke and Itachi would have to be your brothers for that to be true. They are both rogue ninja, but I know that's impossible. Sasuke and Itachi didn't have a sister, let alone another brother on top of it. You're about the same age as Sasuke, and you look nothing like an Uchiha," he finished.

"You want to know the truth?" She paused to sigh and then she turned to face him. "I'm not supposed to talk about my brothers, so I'll tell you this. I was not born an Uchiha, nor am I a part of their family."

She walked into the house Shikamaru had known to be Sasuke's. She shut the door behind her, leaving Shikamaru outside with a lot of unanswered questions.

* * *

**Chapter 10:**

**Secrets Revealed: The Unofficial Ninja**

Tonbo sat on the roof of her house while musing. She had her arms rapped around her knees, pulling them in tightly to her chest. She rested her chin in between her knees and closed her eyes. She had been in that spot almost all night. It wasn't quite dawn yet and all the stars were still out.

_This is bad... really bad. The world really has changed since I've been gone. At this point, there isn't anything I can do either. Ugh! And on top of everything that Nara boy knows more than he should! If he calls me Uchiha again, and in a public setting, more people will start asking questions. If only I hadn't fallen asleep!_

She proceeded to mentally assault herself until her thoughts were interrupted by two feet lightly touching down on the roof.

She lifted her head and looked over her shoulder to find Kakashi who then moved to sit beside her. Tonbo decided that she didn't need to acknowledge him any further and resituated her chin in between her knees.

"What are you doing out here this early in the morning?" Kakashi asked Tonbo.

"Isn't it stranger that you're out here this early in the morning? And at my house?" She was obviously tired. If her long, drawn-out and sharp-edged tone wasn't enough to give it away, the dark bags under her eyes were.

Kakashi completely dismissed her remark, "How long have you been out here?"

"Since sometime past eleven," She turned her head away from him. "I just couldn't sleep, that's all."

Kakashi knew that that couldn't be the only reason, but if he were too direct in asking her, she probably wouldn't tell him any more. "Why did you decide to come up to the roof?"

"It's just nicer out here than it is inside. I can't even remember the last time I got to sit outside for a while. I think I had forgotten how nice the world can smell," she took in a deep breath through her nose, detecting all the scents of nature through the fresh air.

Kakashi took a moment to stare at her. They had been talking to each other everyday possible for years, but up until recently, neither of them had ever seen each other before. It was almost strange to talk face to face. Although Tonbo wouldn't look at him at the moment.

"What have you been doing?" he asked her.

"I've been..." she knew the answer to his question, but she was having trouble spitting it out. "...thinking."

Kakashi gave her a smile under his mask. "It's okay," he told her.

In surprise, Tonbo snapped her head back to look at him. "Wha-?" she didn't bother to finish.

"It's okay to feel the way you do right now. I'm sure that it must be hard, coming back to such a different place. But what isn't okay, is keeping all of your feelings locked up inside you. That doesn't help anyone, and it burdens you more."

For a moment Tonbo let her emotions rise to the surface, and her eyes began to water. But she quickly blinked back her tears. "I know that. You've told me similar things before."

She then shifted her eyes downward. "I guess that I was hoping... that when I came back here, it would be like waking up from a dream. Or more like a nightmare. Instead all it did was force me to wake up to reality. Everything really did happen, and although I don't understand any of it, I still want to try and do something. I know that I can't exactly fix anything, and I don't expect to. But now that I'm here, shouldn't I try to do something useful?"

"I don't see a problem with that, and I'm glad you're not just sulking. I was also hoping that you could come to think of this as a fresh start. Who you are isn't common knowledge, so you have freedom to be who you want to be, pursue new dreams, and form new friendships. Maybe that can free you from your past," Kakashi wanted her heartache to end, but he knew that it wouldn't be as easy for her as he had put it.

"Kakashi, I understand what you're trying to do for me, but I'm sorry I just can't let go of everything that easily. It would be different if everyone in my family had died, but Itachi and Sasuke are still alive. So despite everything, I can't give up the hope that someday we could..." she trailed off.

"I think I understand what you're trying to say. You don't want to give up the hope that the three of you could be a family again. Tonbo, I don't think that's very wise... but I do think it's human." Tonbo gave Kakashi a surprised look.

"I won't ask you to give up on Sasuke yet, I do feel that there might still be hope for him. But Itachi is a different story. Even if he ever did come back, he would be executed for his crimes."

"I know." Tonbo paused for a minute and shifted nervously in her seated position. "I actually have to tell you something... because that's not the only reason why it would be hard for me to have a fresh start."

"What else is there?" he asked her.

"Well, last night a boy found me visiting the cemetery. We talked for a little while and he was pretty rude, so I left quickly. He followed me home and told me that he noticed the surname on all the graves. So... he knows I have something to do with the Uchihas," she waited to see his reaction.

To her surprised he didn't seem all that troubled by it. "We need to find out his name to make sure he doesn't start spreading rumors. I hope you didn't give anything away when he confronted you."

Tonbo put her hands up in front of herself. "Oh, no of course not. I probably just confused him. If I remember correctly, his name was Shikamaru Nara."

Kakashi's expression changed slightly. "Shikamaru huh? Well if it was him, that could be a problem after all."

"What do you mean?"

"Knowing him, he might figure it out and then proceed to recite your entire life story back to you," Kakashi mumbled.

"You're joking, right?" Tonbo gave him a flat look.

"Well, I would like to say yes, but with him it isn't impossible. He has an IQ of over 200."

Realization dawned on Tonbo as she remembered, "I think I remember you talking about him before. He was placed on Team 10 under the tutelage of Asuma Sarutobi, who is one of the third Hokage's sons." She apparently never missed anything Kakashi told her.

"Right, we'll have to talk to him a Sakura as soon as possible."

"Huh? Why Sakura?" this caught Tonbo's attention.

"Well Sakura found out about your surname too," Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed that he would have to admit to her that he leaked information in a similar fashion as she had.

"How did she find that out?"

"After you left the hospital, Sakura had to go over all your paper work. She noticed that your surname wasn't on the documents even though it's required. So when she saw me she asked if I knew your surname. I just wrote it down and left," Kakashi gave her an awkward smile.

"That probably made it look even more suspicious. You could have at least said something to her," Tonbo pouted.

"Sorry, it's not often that I have to keep something from my students."

Tonbo went silent for a moment after that. She knew the bond between student and teacher was fortified in trust.

"Kakashi, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Why did you come to talk to me this early in the morning? I mean, I know that this used to be how early we would talk, but now that I'm here, you don't need to come this early anymore. It seems ridiculous." When Tonbo thought about it, Kakashi probably would have visited her this early even when she was in the hospital if it wasn't before visiting hours started.

"Actually today's different. I have to bring you to a meeting with the Hokage at nine," Kakashi began.

"But the sun still isn't up, it can't even be six yet."

"Yes, but I'm bringing you with me to visit some people before the meeting."

Tonbo read his words as if they were a coded message, in a language only the two of them could understand. "But don't you do that alone? I don't think I should intrude like that."

"I've told them enough about you and you about them. I should introduce you to them at least once."

Tonbo nodded. "Okay, I'll go get ready. You just wait out here." Tonbo scooted to the edge and hopped down from the roof and went inside.

Kakashi stayed on the roof for the time being.

Tonbo knew that Kakashi was referring to Obito and Rin, his former teammates. As Tonbo understood it, both of them had died; Obito from being crushed under a falling boulder and Rin from being punctured straight through the chest.

Kakashi knew the pain of loosing those close to him much more than Tonbo did. Yet, Kakashi never once complained about it. He never grew bitter, and he was able to move forward and form close bonds with new people. He was more than worthy of Tonbo's admiration.

Surely the third Hokage, knowing all of this, must have taken it into consideration when he had chosen Kakashi to be Tonbo's companion. The third Hokage hoped that Tonbo would follow Kakashi's examples.

"Kakashi!" Tonbo called out after emerging from the house.

Kakashi leaped from the roof down to the ground, landing gracefully on his feet like a cat might.

"If we have enough time, I'd like to introduce you to my family," said Tonbo. Kakashi gave her a nod and they walk off together.

* * *

Later Kakashi brought Tonbo to Tsunade's office to have a discussion.

Tsunade shooed Shizune, who was holding Tonton in her arms, out of the room before closing the doors.

Kakashi and Tonbo stood in the center of the room facing Tsunade's desk, waiting patiently for Tsunade to stop yelling at Shizune and telling her to go somewhere, _anywhere_ far away from the building. Apparently Tsunade "let it go last time, but wouldn't stand for anymore eavesdropping".

Something about Tsunade's perceptiveness was frightening, as testified by Shizune's obvious guilt. "A thousand pardons Lady Tsunade!" Shizune was bowing repeatedly in the hallway.

"Apologize by leaving!" Tsunade pointed sharply down the hall in the direction of the exit. "Go now!"

Shizune screeched in terror, "Yes Lady Tsunade!" She then hightailed it out the door and down the stairs.

Tsunade waited a while to make sure she was really gone. When she was satisfied, she turned back and closed the door behind her.

"Sorry about that," Tsunade walked back over to the front of her desk. "I can't blame her for being curious, but listening in on top-secret conversations is still unacceptable."

Neither Kakashi nor Tonbo uttered a response, but this whole scene made Tonbo realize something. _Where is Sakura? _she thought to herself.

It wasn't particularly odd as Tsunade would have kicked her out of the room anyway, but Tonbo was reminded that Sakura knew about her surname. She was sure this would stir up some level of emotion in Sakura.

Tonbo knew from Kakashi that Sakura and Sasuke were on the same team before Sasuke left. What's more, according to Kakashi, Sakura had a thing for Sasuke and was crushed by his decision to leave in quest of greater power— greater power that Sasuke believed he could not obtain by remaining with his team in the Leaf.

The name alone surely would have been enough to cause her to shudder. Tonbo wondered if Sakura knew that she had a meeting with Tsunade and was avoiding her.

Tonbo's mind was brought back to the present by Tsunade shuffling through some papers on her desk. "Kakashi explained to me that all your records, including the record of you attending the Academy have been erased. I checked it out myself and found that even your daily attendance records from the time you did attend school have been erased."

Tsunade found the papers she had been looking for and turned around to face them. "I had always believed that the Academy's records were untouched after being recorded, but it seems the third Hokage was very thorough."

She leaned back against her desk, "I decided to look through all the classified documents for anything with your name on it. I wasn't sure where to start but it turns out that the school records were the key. Attendance records aren't something you would expect to see among the other documents in there. After that I looked for documents that didn't quite fit with the rest. I even found your adoption papers that were never approved."

Tsunade handed Tonbo a packet of filled out adoption papers. "So they really couldn't adopt me after all," Tonbo said mostly to herself.

"Yes, that's another thing I had to find out myself. Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha were the ones who wanted to adopt you, in other words, Itachi and Sasuke's parents, right?" Tsunade tried to ease her irritation.

"Yes, that's correct," Tonbo provided a short answer.

"So it looks like you've been thrown into a particularly sticky web?" Tsunade commented.

Tonbo didn't respond to her. "Alright, then back to the subject at hand. Do you still want to become a full-fledged ninja?" Tsunade asked her.

Tonbo wasn't sure why Tsunade felt the need to ask her again. She looked up at Kakashi to see if his reaction said anything. He was looking back at her as if he was also waiting on her answer.

Tonbo turned back to Tsunade. "Yes," she gave a stiff nod.

Tsunade took a second before she said anything else. Her expression didn't change and Tonbo couldn't even make a guess as to what she might have been thinking.

"That's fine, but to become a genin you still have to pass the final exams at the Academy. You're too old to start at the Academy now, and if I hadn't been able to find your attendance records, you would have been out of luck."

Tsunade gave Tonbo a small smile, "But as luck would have it, there's a graduation ceremony tomorrow. That means that if you can pass the final exams today, you can graduate tomorrow. I've already ask the school board to hold a testing session for you today at three thirty this afternoon. If you don't pass you will have to wait and take the exam again in the spring."

"Wait a minute, how am I supposed to pass the test if I have less than six and a half hours to study six years worth of school material? I haven't even started learning basic taijutsu, and in this state it isn't safe for me to perform any ninjutsu or genjutsu," Tonbo didn't think this was fair at all.

"I'm aware of that. The school board won't test you on ninjutsu or genjutsu. If you fail the taijutsu portion of the exam, you can make up for it if you do nearly perfect on the written portion. Also, the better you do at shuriken throwing and hand seals, the more points you can afford to loose on the written portion of the exam," Tsunade informed.

"But how am I supposed to do that well on the written portion of the exam if I only attended class for less than half a semester?! There's no way I'll know enough to score nearly perfect, let alone pass!" Tonbo was annoyed at this inconvenience.

Tsunade's expression turned provoked, "You should really be more grateful! The graduation ceremony has been postponed more than once! The school board is already busy with preparations and yet they still are taking time out of their day to allow you this opportunity!"

Tsunade took a moment to recomposed herself. "Besides, you have until the test begins to study. Just show up on time."

Tonbo let her level of intensity fall down a few notches too before responding. "Okay, but I still have one more concern. I don't know if you know, but if I use a certain hand seal, my chakra leaks out from a seal that I have over my chakra. It's very painful."

"A hand seal? Which one?" Tsunade had not heard this yet.

"A Half Ram seal."

Tsunade made it a point to herself to remember that. "Well the exam only requires you to preform the twelve basic hand seals of the zodiac."

"Then I should be fine," Tonbo said while only half focused. The only part of the exam she knew she could do well on was the math. That still left everything else to study that she would have to cram into whatever amount of time she would have left after leaving here.

"Good, go and start studying now. I have to go through all of these documents with Kakashi." Tsunade reached out a hand for Tonbo to hand back the adoption papers.

Tonbo handed the papers back to Tsunade. "But I was hoping Kakashi could help me study. I don't know where to start and I don't have anyone else who can help me," she complained.

Tsunade crossed her arms, "He can help you after he's done here, but that's still up to him."

Tonbo turned and looked at Kakashi anticipatorily. Kakashi sighed, "Fine, go to the library and ask whoever's at the front desk for a copy of all the textbooks they use at the Academy. I'll meet you there as soon as I'm done."

Tonbo brightened her face with a smile, "Thank you!" Then she left out the door.

"Kakashi, I know this is personal, but what does that girl mean to you?" Tsunade pried.

Kakashi paused before answering. "I don't really know myself."

Tsunade gave a smirk, "It looks like she has you wrapped around her finger."

"Not quite," Kakashi completely ignored the devious look he was being given. "Why don't we start going through all of these papers?" he changed the subject.

Tsunade seemed disappointed that he wouldn't say anything more than that. "Fine."

Kakashi didn't have time to try and explain his complicated relationship with Tonbo. After all, he was on a mission. _If Tonbo's birth certificate is here, her original surname and the names of her parents will be on it. With that I can start tracing her lineage to see if there's a record of anyone with abilities similar to Tonbo's._

* * *

Thanks to the fact that Kakashi knew what would be on the exam, Tonbo was able to pass, but only just so. The math portion, as expect, was flawless with only the answers and without any work written.

Everything else on the written exam was good enough; all credit to Kakashi. Hand seals and shuriken throwing got good marks. She did the best she could on the taijutsu, which she found was definitely not her strong suit, but she didn't completely fail that part of the exam.

If she had failed the taijutsu portion, she wouldn't have passed due to her incompetence at writing.

Her lack of skills in writing may have had something to do with the fact that she had learned to read a bit late. Back when Itachi was tutoring Tonbo, he found out that Tonbo could barely read anything. He had found himself wondering how she had passed the entrance exam into the Academy to begin with.

Since they didn't teach kids how to read at the level she was put into, Itachi was the one who ended up teaching Tonbo how to read. If she had stayed at the Academy longer, she might have passed successfully with top marks.

Instead, her school record would state that it took her eight year to graduate with mediocre scores. She definitely wouldn't be a favorite if she ever attempted to pass the chunin exams.

When the next day came around, Tonbo found herself trying out various hairstyles in front of a mirror before giving up and wearing her hair down as always. She had never concerned herself with appearances before, but she would be surrounded by a swarm of people she didn't know.

She didn't particularly like large crowds. She was hastily placed in an extra seat a teacher set out for her at the ceremony.

She was the last one called and because her affiliations still had to remain secret, they only called her given name. "Tonbo!"

Tonbo rose from her seat and traced the steps she had seen all the students before her take. When she walk onto the stage, bowed and proudly accepted a forehead protector bearing the symbol of the Leaf Village.

Despite the fact the everyone clapped politely, you could still hear the murmuring that swept through the class of students. She did look odd being taller than all the other students. That, the fact that none of the students had ever seen her before, and that she apparently only had a given name, all would sprout rumors later on.

After the ceremony had ended, she went to the store to buy a different color for the cloth of her forehead protector. The shade of blue that everyone receives them in didn't quite match the shade of blue of the blue band she wore around her calf.

She couldn't find one that matched perfectly, so she decided that since black was a neutral color, it would work fine. She imagined that Sakura and Ino would probably scold her, telling her that there was a better color out there for her than black, as it would now be the only black she wore.

She planned on solving that problem by buying black fingerless gloves with metal plates on the backs of them when she started to make money. She knew that she would have to rely mostly on hand-to-hand combat from now on.

After leaving the store and dropping her stuff off back at home, she started heading to Tsunade's office. She still had to be placed on a team, plus she had a favor to ask her.

When she walked up the stairs to her office room, she heard multiple people speaking in hushed tones behind the closed door. She knocked and heard everyone on the other side of the door grow suddenly silent.

"Who is it?!" she heard Tsunade boom from inside the room.

"Tonbo!" she called out.

She heard some whispers and then someone shushing everyone else. "Come in Tonbo," Tsunade said in a much more pleasant tone than before.

She opened the door to see a lot that spoke for itself, she didn't need to guess what they were talking about. In the room with Tsunade was Kakashi, Sakura, and Shikamaru.

"So Uchiha makes an appearance after all," Shikamaru said looking over his shoulder.

Sakura made sure to give him a piercing glare, but due to the fact that his focus was on "Uchiha", he didn't notice.

Tonbo gritted her teeth, "Don't call me Uchiha, Tonbo is just fine."

Shikamaru only shrugged with his hands in his pockets for a response. It was then Tonbo noticed that instead of avoiding her eyes like she had assumed, Sakura was staring intently at Tonbo. Tonbo had a shrinking feeling and found herself averting her eyes and turning towards what she deemed the friendliest face in the room; Kakashi.

"What's going on here?" not that she needed to ask.

"It's actually not a bad thing that you came right now. We were attempting the shortest explanation we could think of," Kakashi almost looked relieved that Tonbo showed up. Perhaps things weren't going all that well with their conversation.

"Yes, why don't you come in and join our discussion?" Tsunade beckoned.

She saw Kakashi nod in agreement, so she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

"Fine, where were you guys?" she sighed.

"Actually, since we weren't getting anywhere, why don't you try and give your best explanation?" Tsunade asked.

Tonbo looked at both Shikamaru and Sakura who were obviously waiting for some great explanation Tonbo didn't have. _Well, looks like I don't have a choice,_ she told herself.

"Alright, listen up. A long time ago now, I was being taken care of by an Uchiha family that planned to adopt me. While they had temporary custody over me, they changed my surname. They could not adopt me before they were killed, and therefore, I was never an official member of the clan. For my own protection, my ties with the clan are being withheld from the general public, meaning you can't tell anyone about this," Tonbo spat out in one long stream of information.

Shikamaru and Sakura both looked at her skeptically. "What about the fact that you were calling both Sasuke and Itachi your brothers and that you're living at Sasuke's house?" Shikamaru questioned.

Sakura widened her eyes, "Sasuke's house?"

Tonbo had forgotten in that moment that Shikamaru had seen her go into Sasuke house and that she had revealed to him in the cemetery that both her living brothers were rogue ninja. She had just trapped herself.

"Uh, yes, that just so happens to be the family that wanted to adopt me. With Sasuke and Itachi being rogue ninja, the seriousness of this is even greater. We don't even know if they know I'm alive, which is all the more reason to keep this a secret," Tonbo tried to turn this around.

Sakura's mouth was agape, she was completely shocked. She closed her mouth as she recomposed herself and then spoke, "But you also said that you had a younger brother, Sasuke didn't have a younger brother."

"Yes, well I called him my brother, but in reality he was originally just Sasuke's best friend. He was over at Sasuke's house so often that it was weird when he wasn't there. The three of us were best friends but we considered each other siblings," Tonbo was beginning to feel pressured.

"Didn't he have parents of his own? Where were they?" Sakura persisted.

"Uh, of course he did. I didn't see his mother very often because we didn't go over to his house very often."

"What about his father?"

"I never met him, I don't know who he was."

"You should know, your story doesn't sound very good," Shikamaru put in.

Sure she realized that to most people all she's been saying would sound like one lie after another to cover up the one before. In fact, if she had heard this from anyone else, she probably wouldn't have believed them. But this was the truth, so how could she convince them?

"It's all true," everyone turned to look at Kakashi. "Everything she's said is the truth."

"But how would you know that? All you have to go off of is her word just like the rest of us," Sakura looked angry.

Tonbo felt hurt all of a sudden that Sakura didn't believe her. But to be honest, she couldn't blame her.

"The third Hokage told me everything he knew six years ago. Everything she's ever told me has matched up with what he said that day," Kakashi looked at Sakura directly as to further his seriousness for defending against her accusation.

Tonbo realized that with Sakura having acted as her doctor while she was in the hospital, she could have pointed out a number of more odd things, but it appears she decided to hold her tongue.

Tsunade was still struggling to be convinced herself. She still wanted to be sure that Tonbo wasn't a treat to the village, and much of what was just said was more than she had known. It would appear that both Sakura and Shikamaru knew much more about the situation than she did, and she was not happy about that.

But Tsunade decided that she would still remain quiet for the time being to see if the other two skeptics would accept everything as fact.

"Well I guess we have no choice to believe her," Shikamaru said nonchalantly.

Sakura simply crossed her arms and looked the other way without putting up any protest.

Keeping her composure as to not reveal that she ever had doubts, Tsunade spoke carefully, "What changed your mind?"

"Right now there's no proof that she's lying. We can debate whether or not her story makes since or not all we want, but without proof, nothing will be accomplished."

He looked back at Tonbo, "That doesn't mean that we still can't have doubts, but until we can prove otherwise, we'll have to go along with what she says. For now we'll just have to keep our mouths shut."

"You don't sound like you believe me!" Tonbo threw at him.

"I haven't decided whether I actually believe you or not yet," he smirked.

"Well then, as long as you swear not to tell anyone about this, then would you mind leaving? I have my own business with the Hokage, I didn't come here without a reason after all," Tonbo was clearly irritated by him.

"Fine, I swear," he said as he walked past her to leave out the door.

Something about the way he said that irritated Tonbo even more, but she restrained herself from saying anything.

"I swear too," Sakura said as she followed Shikamaru's footsteps and passed Tonbo without looking up at her.

Tonbo felt the cold aura Sakura was wearing. She could only stare at Sakura's back as she left.

"Do you want me to leave too?" Kakashi asked.

Tonbo brought her attention back to Kakashi and Tsunade. "No you can stay if you'd like."

Kakashi nodded and stayed where he stood. "Okay, what did you come here for?" Tsunade asked.

"Well now that I'm a genin, I was wondering what team you were going to place me on."

"Oh, that. I'm afraid that situation is rather complicated. The class you graduated with was already split into even teams of three. We also don't have any teams right now that are missing a member."

"But what about Kakashi's team?" Tonbo asked.

"With Naruto gone with Jiraiya and Sakura under my tutelage, Team Kakashi has temporarily been disband. It will remain that way until Naruto returns. Plus, with the way you are now, you'll need someone who can teach you taijutsu," Tsunade then turned to Kakashi.

"I think you know who I'm referring to. Will you bring her by there tomorrow morning?" she asked him.

"Of course, and if you make it an order it will be easier to explain," Kakashi responded.

"Very well then. Tonbo, I should have you know that since he already has a full team of his own, you will not be an official member. But he will be the best person to teach you even if he can't be your sensei."

"Okay, thank you," Tonbo bowed in respect. She was a bit disappointed, but she knew she shouldn't complain about it.

"I have one more thing I want to ask you about," Tonbo said after rising.

"What is it?"

Tonbo walked up to Tsunade sitting behind her desk and cupped her hand to whisper in her ear.

Kakashi couldn't hear any of it, and he was surprised that Tonbo had something she wouldn't say out loud in front of him. "So there really are things you won't tell me?" he asked.

Tonbo completely ignored him, much to his annoyance. But he let it slide.

Tsunade widened her eyes a bit. It was an odd request and she wasn't sure if she would be abusing her power as Hokage if she complied, but she figured she'd humor her just this once.

"Alright," Tsunade tore a slip of paper off one of the blank sheets she had laying out on her desk.

She scratched something down on it and handed it to Tonbo. "It has my signature, so they shouldn't mind," she told Tonbo.

"Thank you, I really do appreciate it." That was probably the most genuine act of gratitude Tsunade had ever seen from Tonbo.

"Alright, hurry up and go ask them."

Tonbo skipped out the door excitedly.

"Kakashi, you should probably go tell Gai what to expect," Tsunade leaned her chin against her hand.

"With all his energy, I'm sure he won't mind." With that, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

* * *

After giving Tsunade's order to the school board and waiting while they debated for a while, Tonbo was on her way to the cemetery.

There was never anything exciting about visiting someone's grave, but for now, Tonbo felt happy. Even if they were dead, Tonbo believed that they could still hear her if she spoke to them, and she truly believed that she could make Hinashou feel happy.

She walked up and down the rows until she came to his headstone. She knelt down in the grass and fiddled with what she had in her hands for a bit.

Then she tied the blue forehead protector around the top left corner of the headstone. She clapped her hands together and closed her eyes.

_Today I finally graduated from the ninja Academy. Now all three of us can become great ninja together. We each promised that we wouldn't leave you behind, so now we can begin our journey together. One day we'll all be together again, and we can look back and remember together. We are shinobi, and we will never loose our bonds._


	11. Secrets Revealed:Team 3 Plus 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden.

A/N: Before anyone asks, yes, Team Gai's team number was 3. That explains the title. :)

* * *

**Chapter 11:**

**Secrets Revealed: Team 3 + 1**

Tonbo was laying back-down in her bed staring up at the ceiling when she heard her alarm clock finally go off. She let it run for several minutes before reaching her arm out and hitting the button without removing her eyes from the ceiling.

She had been restless all night, but at least she stayed in her bed the whole night through for once. She knew that she would have to be well rested to make a good first impression on the team she would be training with. After all, they already had a full team and didn't need her, so it would be vital that they don't see her as a burden.

The last thing she wanted was for them to feel like teaching her how to fight is a chore, as she was going to be so far behind them. But, in reality, all she could do was show up ready to learn from them.

There wasn't going to be some easy way around working hard if she was going to catch up to her peers. If she had to, she would prove herself to them. That's what she had in mind at least.

Having had next to no sleep for the past several days meant that she was sure to have trouble keeping up with the team. With that in mind, she deemed a cold shower was what she would need to wake herself up. The water never stayed more than lukewarm for long anyway with her being the only consumer of water in the entire abandoned Uchiha district after so many years.

She wondered if it was like that for Sasuke while he was living here alone. If so, he had never complained about it to anyone.

She got up and took eight minutes in the shower. Afterwards, she proceed to dry off, get dressed, reheat the food she had prepared the night before, brush her teeth, brush her hair, and wash the dishes.

Unfortunately enough for her, she still felt dead tired and it was bound to show somewhere along the way. She slapped her cheeks and stretched her arms up in a last attempt before leaving.

Now she would at least have a little color in her face. She put her shoes on and slid the door closed behind her. She didn't bother to lock it, she wasn't even sure where the key to the door was. But it wasn't like anyone would try to rob a house that had been abandoned for years.

She knew she was supposed to go to training ground three to meet the team, but she had no idea where that was. Kakashi had agreed to meet her by the district gates before six to show her the way.

She dragged her feet down the main road that cut through all the former Uchiha properties and arrived at the gates to see that Kakashi was late. Tonbo knew that Kakashi was late to most things, but that was because he spent a lot of time talking to her and then Obito and Rin. She was hoping that wouldn't change.

But it seems that now that she was no longer isolated from the rest of the world, she would have to wait for Kakashi to show up just like everyone else. She sighed and sat down, leaning against one of the large posts that framed the gate.

Kakashi walked up about 15 minutes later. _It could have been worse, _she told herself so that she wouldn't get annoyed.

She stood, "Hey."

"Hey," he gave her a wave.

She decided that it would be best to ignore his late arrival for the time being and asked a more pressing question, "Who is on the team I'll be training with?"

"The sensei's name is Maito Gai. He is a taijutsu master, which is exactly what you need. His students are Neji Hyuga, Rock Lee, and Tenten. I'm sure you've heard me mention all their names before," Kakashi answered.

Tonbo chuckled, "Yes, isn't Gai your 'eternal rival'?"

Kakashi's laid-back smile turned into an awkward one. "Yeah, I guess you could put it that way."

Tonbo laughed again. Kakashi had told her a lot about Gai, and those two couldn't be more different. Their friendship was definitely... unique.

The other three were people she didn't know all that much about. Kakashi didn't know them all that well, so she was never told all that much about them. In some ways, Tonbo felt nervous not knowing hardly anything about them.

She then noticed that Kakashi had been staring at her for a while now. She gave him a look.

"Uh, Tonbo?" Kakashi spoke.

"Yeah?"

"Your shirt's on backwards," he informed her kindly.

She looked down, "Darn it, turn around."

He already had.

* * *

Gai brought his team to a halt back at training ground three. He turned around to face them while still jogging in place.

"Nice work team! Your youthfulness has made me proud!" Gai said in his usual overly-enthusiastic tone.

"Thank you Gai-sensei! Anything can be accomplished with the passion of youth!" Lee grabbed the air as he made a fist and beamed his fiery grin.

"Right Lee!" Gai gave him a thumps-up.

"Ugh! It's too early for me to have to listen to you guys blab on about youth," Tenten said groggily.

Although Neji looked indifferent as always, he was thinking along the same lines. "Tenten has a point, you never gave us a reason for getting us up an hour earlier than usual," he pointed out.

Gai stopped jogging in place and gave them all a grin. "Well my dear students, today I wanted you all to have an extra warmup before my eternal rival Kakashi brings over someone extremely interesting for us all to meet."

"Huh? Kakashi-sensei?" Tenten repeated from the ground where she was stretching out her legs. It wasn't often that they saw Kakashi for any reason other than for Gai to challenge him to something ridiculous.

"Who might Kakashi-sensei be bringing over?" Lee asked.

"Excellent question Lee!" Gai pointed upward. "A girl who has just graduated from the Academy and is without a team. She cannot use ninjutsu and genjutsu, and for that reason, we will be training her."

Lee's eyes lit up, "Another person who is also unable to use ninjutsu and genjutsu? I did not know there was another person such as me!" He took a stance with one fist on his hip and the other held below his face. "I will take her under my wing and teach her to be just like me!"

Tenten looked Lee over in all his bowl-cut haired, thick eyebrow-ed, and green spandex onesied glory and then tried to imagine a girl in a similar fashion. She shuddered. Lee already looked like a younger version of Gai, she didn't think she would be able to handle a third one.

"Well actually Lee, she is capable of using both ninjutsu and genjutsu, but for some reason she is not allowed to. I do not know why, but Kakashi says he does not want her to use either of them," Gai held his thumb and forefinger up to cradle his chin.

Neji crossed his arms, "That does seem interesting. And the fact that she doesn't have a team, is there a specific reason for that?"

"I was told that she is 14 and older than the other graduates. All of the other graduates were divided into even teams of three, leaving her without a team. Kakashi also mention that Lady Hokage was not keen on her becoming a ninja to begin with," Gai now gave a contemplative look.

Tenten's head shot up, "Is there something wrong with her? Or did she do something?"

"I was not informed of anything being wrong with her or her having done anything. If you would like, you may ask her when she arrives," Gai offered.

It was obvious that Tenten didn't like that idea as she gave a disgusted look. "I don't think that's a good way to start a conversation with someone you just met."

"I do not see a problem with it!" Gai gave a cheeky grin despite knowing full well that Tenten was probably right.

"If you do not Tenten, then I will!" Lee proclaimed.

"Lee, you can't just walk up and ask a girl something like that!" Tenten scolded him. "Girls are sensitive to things like that, she would probably be offended!"

"And asking Gai-sensei instead makes it okay?" Neji asked rhetorically.

"Well I was curious," Tenten tried to defend, but she knew that was a weak argument after yelling at Lee like that.

"Well you really should figure out what you're going to ask her, she's coming," Neji gestured towards the training ground entrance.

They all looked over to see Tonbo following closely behind Kakashi.

"Well if it wasn't for her forehead protector, I wouldn't have believed that she's a ninja. She doesn't look like she's ran a day in her life," Tenten whispered to Neji.

"I'm not going to disagree with you, she almost looks frail," Neji said back under his breath as they neared.

"Yo," Kakashi waved with a smile.

Gai struck a pose with his fists on his hips and a grin on his face. "Kakashi, is this the interesting and mysterious young woman you have told me about?" he asked watching Tonbo.

"Yep, this is Tonbo," Kakashi let Tonbo catch up to him.

To Team Gai's surprise, Tenten was the first to introduce herself. She step forward and held out her hand. "Hi, my name is Tenten," she gave a cheerful smile.

Tonbo looked at her hand first before realizing that she was meant to shake it. She took Tenten's hand, "Hi Tenten, it's nice to meet you."

Tenten took a step back and motioned to both Neji and Lee. "These are my teammates," she then let them introduce themselves.

"I am Rock Lee!" Lee bowed stiffly at the waist. "It is a pleasure to meet you!"

Tonbo was quite surprised by his intensity and she looked at Kakashi to see his reaction. By the look on his face, she could tell that Lee must always be like that. "It's a pleasure to meet you too," she gave a slight bow.

"Neji Hyuga," Neji stated with his arms crossed.

Tonbo didn't think much of his introduction but it was obvious that Tenten did. She laughed awkwardly, "Sorry about him. He's always like this, so don't worry, it isn't you or anything."

She turned to Neji and looked ready to smack him, but she restrained herself and settled on scolding him. She spoke so fast and in a hushed tone so that Tonbo couldn't make out what she was actually saying to him.

With that going on, Gai decided to introduce himself. "And I am Maito Gai! I will train your body and mind in order to bring out your youthfulness!"

He might have been even more intense than Lee.

"Well, I'll leave you to it," Kakashi said as he turned to leave, giving a wave.

Tonbo suddenly felt panicked that he was just going to leave her alone with these lunatics. She knew that if she said anything the team might get the wrong impression. Really she was just nervous, and she wasn't very accustom to having to socialize on her own.

She stared at his back as he left as if in a trance before Tenten pretended to clear her throat to bring Tonbo's attention back to them. Tonbo realized that she had probably been staring for longer than she should have, but she couldn't think of anything to say, so she just waited for one of them to say something.

"Alright!" Gai decided it was time to take charge. "We will carry on as we normally do and you may join in with us!" he grinned toothily at Tonbo.

"Okay, I'll try to keep up," Tonbo said, a little less confidently than she would have liked.

"Splendid! Shall we start off with 500 laps around Konoha?" Gai turned to Lee who looked giddy with anticipation.

"Why not make it 1,000 laps Gai-sensei?" Lee asked ecstatic.

"Glorious Lee! Let us make it 2,000 laps and...!" Tonbo drowned out the rest of their back and forth that would soon manifest itself in the form of her torture.

Neji, noticing Tonbo's wide eyes become glazed over in horror, decided to interrupt them. "I think it would be best if you both take it easy for the day." He added an after thought, "If you want your new pupil to survive long enough to 'bring out her youthfulness'."

They both looked over at Tonbo who appeared to be mortified. They decided they would compromise.

Although Tenten tried to lag behind the others with Tonbo, Tonbo still ended up doing most everything watching everyone else's backs. Tenten kept telling her to do everything at her own pace and to finish at the same time with everyone else.

Tonbo would have responded with more than just a nod if she wasn't too tired to think of anything more and if she wasn't breathless enough to speak.

She ran more laps than she could count but it wasn't even close to half of what the others did. Despite the vast difference in her abilities in comparison with theirs, she still pushed herself through whatever they asked her to do.

They ended up doing push-ups, squats, chin-ups, pull-ups, one-handed push-ups, one-legged squats, laps walking on their hands, preforming numerous drills for different kicks and punches against logs, and finally, they began sparring.

Gai had Tenten help Neji with his byakugan by throwing volley after volley of projectiles at him out of her scrolls. Ideally, Tonbo would spar with Lee.

Lee was still full of energy and could probably keep going for several more days at this rate. He didn't waste any time getting into his fighting stance ready to face his new opponent.

Tonbo, however, was now experiencing troubles with her vision. She was having trouble focusing her eyes on Lee.

She attempted to mirror Lee's stance as best as she could. Once she looked firm in her position, Lee took that as his cue to begin.

Lee began to take off towards her but had to stop himself after seeing her collapse in front of him. With his speed, he wouldn't have been able to stop in time to avoid trampling her, so he drove himself off course and slowed himself several feet after passing her.

He rushed over to her side, "Miss Tonbo? Miss Tonbo, are you okay?"

He noticed that her heavy breathing had suddenly slowed and her eyes were closed.

Tenten and Neji immediately stopped training and Tenten hurried over. "Lee, what did you do? What happened to her?" she asked exasperated.

"I did not touch her, she simply collapsed," Lee really did look concerned, maybe more for himself rather than for Tonbo.

"Would you two calm down? She's only sleeping," Neji told them as he walked up.

"How can you tell?" It wasn't that Tenten wasn't convinced, she was merely curious.

"I don't know if you noticed, but she's been yawning all day, though she has been trying to hide it. She must have been tired before hand. On top of that, her heart rate has been extremely high since this morning when we started. She obviously isn't used to much physical activity. Her breathing and heart are finally starting to slow down," Neji explained to her.

"Don't you guys find it strange that after just having graduated from the Academy, she's this unfit? We did all kinds of physical conditioning in school. It is meant to train children to become ninja after all," Tenten thought out loud.

"Yes, I was thinking the same thing," said Lee.

"Considering everything, I'm surprised she lasted as long as she had. I had assumed she would stop after the first time she threw-up," Neji recrossed his arms.

Gai, who was leaning against a tree observing from a distance, finally decided to join his students.

"I must admit, I am a bit surprised myself, it is past four. We should bring her home to rest. I do not know where she lives so we will have to find Kakashi."

"Gai-sensei?" Lee as well as the others were surprised by Gai's sudden change from his usual demeanor. He seemed more serious.

"You should all stay here while I look for him. Make sure she is okay," Gai ordered.

"I'll go with you," Neji stated forcefully.

Gai gave him a glance but didn't object and took off in the direction of Kakashi's apartment. Neji took that as an okay and went after him.

Both Lee and Tenten knew that something must be on everyone's minds, but was it the same thing?

"Lee, we should move her out of the middle of the field. Why don't we move her up against one of the trees?" Tenten asked.

"Very well then, let us move her!" Lee agreed.

* * *

As Neji caught up to Gai as they hopped through the trees, Gai finally turned to look at Neji.

"So what was it that you wanted to tell me?" he asked Neji.

"There are many things I don't understand right now concerning her. Tenten made a good point about her not being fit despite having recently graduating from the Academy, and it is even stranger for someone to graduate at her age. But there is something else that I find far more intriguing."

"And what might that be?"

"When I had my byakugan activated, I couldn't help but notice that something is wrong with her chakra flow."

Gai's eyes widened for a moment.

Neji continued, "She has an extremely small amount of chakra still flowing freely throughout her chakra network, which some is necessary for survival. However, the majority of her chakra is stuck flowing in the shape of a ring right over her heart. What's more, it's completely separated from her chakra network."

Gai narrowed his eyes, "I see, intriguing indeed."

"I have to wonder... why was she placed with our team in the first place and how is it even possible for her chakra to stuck like that? I noticed that she was unconsciously using some of her chakra in order to keep going, but when her body drew on her chakra, it only used what was left in her chakra network."

"Neji, I do not understand it yet either. I know for a fact that Kakashi trusts her completely and as his eternal rival, I must respect that. We do not know if even she knows the answers to our questions. So for now, I must trust that we will be told what we need to know. Anything else, we will have to gain her trust to know."

Neji crinkled his nose, "For that to work, she'll have to earn our trust first."

At this Gai grinned. "As expected of you, my youthful Neji!" and his seriousness had vanished.

* * *

A/N: I had a bit of trouble coming up with the lines for Team Gai so it took me longer to write this chapter than I had expected. Sorry about that! Please Read and Review!


	12. Secrets Revealed:Confrontation

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. If I did, we would see more of Tenten.

* * *

**Chapter 12:**

**Secrets Revealed: Confrontation**

Tonbo woke up with the sun shining brightly into her eyes. She squinted them open in annoyance while she sat herself up. The first thing she noticed was that her body ached all over. Every movement she made caused pain to shoot throughout her body.

Her soreness reminded her about her training with Team Gai. The only thing that could compare with the intensity of the training they put her through, was the intensity of the team's distinctive personalities. She couldn't remember anything after getting ready to fight with Rock Lee.

Then she realized that she was under the covers in her bed back at home. How she had gotten there was definitely a cause for concern. Questions would surely be raised if any of the members of Team Gai had found out about where she lived.

She would have to find out about that later, right now she needed a shower. All her sweat from the day before had dried on her skin and she felt oily and crusty. She grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom down the hall.

She left her clothes on the floor and hopped in. She still thought it was amusing that Sasuke never threw away Mikoto's shampoo.

Once the water got too cold for her to bear any longer, she got out and wrapped her towel around her bare body and went back to her room to brush her hair and change into clean clothing.

After searching through her closet once, she remembered that she had left her clothes in the laundry room. So she walk down the hall, past the kitchen and the living room and decided to change in the laundry room itself.

She hung up her towel to dry and then proceeded to walk to the kitchen. She might have felt good if her muscles weren't so sore. She hadn't had that much rest in quite a while and it was nice to get to sleep in.

She pasted through the living room before reaching the kitchen and opening the refrigerator door. She looked inside but her mind soon traveled elsewhere.

She thought back to her trip through the living room and couldn't help but feel that there was something there that wasn't supposed to be.

Her hand left the handle of the refrigerator door as she leaned over to look through the door frame separating the kitchen from the living room. She jumped as she was startled by a person sitting on her couch, quietly reading a book.

"K-kakashi, how long have you been here?!" she asked, bewildered.

Kakashi calmly looked up from his small orange book at her. "All morning," he said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"All morning?!" Tonbo repeated completely dumbfounded.

"Yes," Kakashi stated simply.

"But why?" Tonbo asked incredulously.

"The door was unlocked."

Tonbo's mouth dropped open. "That doesn't mean you can come in whenever you want! Why would you stay if I was sleeping? And even more so, didn't you hear me get in the shower?!"

"Of course," Kakashi's face was still expressionless.

"Why didn't you leave then?!"

Kakashi sat up straighter, finally ready to explain himself. "I actually came by at around six this morning to see if you were ready to train with Team Gai again, but when I got here you were still sleeping and your alarm clock was going off. I decided to let you sleep and I went and told Gai that you needed to rest a little longer."

Tonbo crossed her arms sending him a glare as he was still seated on her couch comfortably. He completely avoided answering her question.

"If it makes you feel better, I did knock before I came in," Kakashi was obviously hoping that would ease her wrath.

"Then why did you come back and stay here all morning?!" she yelled, trying to get to the bottom of things.

"After hearing about how your training went yesterday, I thought I would make you something to eat when you woke up. You know, your refrigerator has hardly anything in it, I'll take you out to lunch," he offered.

"So you also went through my refrigerator?!" Tonbo looked back over at her refrigerator and quickly reached over to close the door she had left open.

She reappeared in the doorway and let out a deep breath to regain her composure. "Okay, one more thing. How did I get back home?" she asked in a much calmer tone of voice.

"I carried you back here."

"So no one found out about where I live?"

"Yes, I made sure of that."

"Okay..." she was a little embarrassed that she had fallen asleep right before a battle. "...thank you."

Kakashi gave her a smile, "Come on, it's almost lunch time. Do you like ramen?"

She was having trouble with the idea of him taking care of her, but she still wouldn't have any money until she went on a mission.

She bit her lip lightly before replying somewhat reluctantly, "Yes."

"Alright, get your shoes and we'll go," Kakashi said, slightly cheerful.

Tonbo gave a sigh, "Fine."

* * *

**Two Weeks Later**

Tonbo was down, flat on her back again. She closed her eyes for a few seconds to concentrate on controlling her breathing. Then she lifted her head up to see Lee standing over her with his fist extended out in front of her face.

"Widen your stance!" she heard Gai call out to her.

Lee backed off so she could stand. She did exactly as Gai told her and moved her foot outwards.

Lee and Tonbo looked each other in the eyes, affirming their readiness before pushing off their forward feet to come at each other.

Using his superior speed, Lee led with his knee, aiming for her gut. Tonbo had only an instant to react by pulling both of her forearms in between them, crossing to block.

The force from his knee still pushed her upward. Taking advantage of the upward momentum, Tonbo slid her forearms over Lee's knee until her palms cupped his kneecap.

With her arms extended and her body in the air, she used her hands as a pivot to shift her momentum sideways as she threw both her legs at Lee's head.

Lee only needed one forearm to block her kick effectively. Instead of pushing her legs away from his head immediately, he used his forearm against her legs to guide himself as he followed through with his next move.

As Lee moved in closer, Tonbo only had time to widen her eyes before she was sent hurdling backwards in the dirt by Lee's punch from the opposite arm.

There wasn't even time to think about getting up before Lee was once again over the top of Tonbo. She held her breath momentarily when she went cross-eyed staring at Lee's fist only centimeters away from her nose.

She eased her tension to begin panting again as she gently pushed Lee's hand out of her face. _Four seconds, _she said to herself nonverbally.

"Do not be hasty! There is no need for you to get him on your first move! When you had placed your hands on Lee's knee, you should have pushed away to avoid leaving openings in your defense!" Gai instructed Tonbo from in front of the treeline.

Tonbo stood herself up with the same determination in her eyes as she had been demonstrating all day. She realized that this time Lee had been merciful and only punched her.

He had the perfect opportunity to kick her in the face again, but instead, he must have finally taken enough pity on her jaw.

"Right, sorry Gai!" she said as she again took a stance.

Tenten, who was in mid-jutsu, blew a silent fuse. She turned her eyes downcast and dropped her weapon-holding scrolls at her sides. She walked straight past Neji without giving him a second look.

Lee and Tonbo clashed once again, resulting in Tonbo immediately being forced on the defensive.

Tenten paced herself across the field.

Lee and Tonbo both drew back and separated. Tonbo landed down on one knee, whereas Lee seemed perfectly stable.

Tonbo took a few seconds just to breathe before forcing herself back on to her feet. She sank into a fighting stance.

Lee was about to go after her when Tenten intercepted and stood between the two. "Ten-?" Lee didn't get to finish.

Tenten was facing Tonbo when she spoke with monotone seriousness. "I've been very tolerant of you so far, and I believe I asked you nicely yesterday..."

Tonbo fell back out of her fighting stance with a questioning look.

"But if I need to repeat myself... don't you mean Gai-_sensei_?!" Tenten yelled.

Tonbo frowned. "I also told you yesterday, it isn't allowed to have more than three students per jounin sensei. I can't call him sensei because I'm not officially assigned to him!" she raised her voice.

Tenten narrowed her eyes, "Well you should at least show some amount of respect! Call him Mr. Gai, or even better, Mr. Maito!"

"I don't see why I have to! I'm not apart of this team, you guys don't even take me on missions with you!" Tonbo crossed her arms in protest.

"We were only gone twice." Tenten mimicked Tonbo's act of rebellion and crossed her arms as well. "And that brings me to another point, I bet you were taking it easy while we were gone, considering how you never showed any improvement after we got back."

"I wasn't taking it easy!" Tonbo defended. "I have to have a way of making money too you know. So since you guys left me both times, I asked the Hokage for missions of my own! But catching runaway cats and doing yard work for the elderly doesn't exactly help me with my taijutsu."

Tenten smirked, "Hm! Well maybe if you were better at fighting we could take you with us. If you came on a mission with us at your current ability we'd end up having to save you. You'd be in the way. Everyone has to start out with the small stuff before they can move on to the more dangerous missions."

"Uh, girls..." Lee began.

"Stay out of this!" they both yelled in unison.

Tonbo turned her head to the side. "Anything else?" she asked Tenten.

Tenten opened her mouth, drawing in a breath ready to speak, but was soon cut off. "Enough," Gai said fairly calmly.

"Fighting among comrades is not only un-youthful but detrimental, whether you are on the same team or not," he scolded them.

"Tenten, it is a small matter what Tonbo decides to call me and it is not for your concern. Tonbo may call me as she wishes and I agree that it would be improper for her to call me sensei under her current circumstances."

Tenten looked away as she restrained herself from arguing with him and yielded to his authority.

"I believe you should turn your attention to Neji," Gai pointed out.

Tenten turned to see Neji standing silently next to her, staring. "We were in the middle of a sparring match," he deadpanned.

Tenten huffed a sigh. Neji was holding out both of her weapon scrolls waiting for her to take them back. He had rolled them up for her.

"Thanks," she said curtly before taking them and stomping off in the direction of where they had been training.

Tenten couldn't believe that Gai-sensei really just took Tonbo's side and then had scolded her for trying to defend him. She couldn't remember a single time where Gai had acted like this before.

While she concentrated her energy in her hands as she gripped her scrolls as hard as she could without damaging them, her ears perked up when she heard Gai continue behind her.

"Tonbo, Tenten still does have an excellent point. The types of missions you took on do not take all day. As a passionate, young woman you must practice twice as hard on the days we are absent from Konoha!" Gai struck a pose, grabbing the air in front of him and making a fist as he grinned gleefully.

"Therefore," he continued, "instead of punishing you, run fifty laps around Konoha and prove your youthful spirit!"

Tonbo gave a momentary look of horror but soon composed herself and took off as she was told. "Right," she called over her shoulder. She had just started breathing normally again.

Tenten's faced softened. She wasn't exactly all that happy that Tonbo had gotten scolded and was now probably going through torture, but she wasn't quite so angry anymore.

* * *

When Tonbo finally finished her run, she immediately took to the tree next to her water bottle and slid her back down its trunk until she was seated. She took a few minutes to catch her breath before she grabbed her water bottle and down all of it.

Being fall, the sun was already starting to set behind the trees. Both Tenten and Neji had already packed up their belongings and were ready to go eat dinner.

"Miss Tonbo, would you like to just come to dinner tonight?" Lee asked, taking notice of her.

"No, I can keep going if you can Lee. Do you want to say?" Tonbo asked.

Without a doubt, Lee had about a hundred times more energy than Tonbo did. "Alright, I shall stay and train with you!" Lee exclaimed.

"Okay, well me and Neji are leaving," Tenten told them as she slung her bag over her shoulder.

"Very well then, I shall accompany the both of you! I leave things here to you, Lee!" Gai said.

"Of course Gai-sensei!" Lee stood in a stiff saluting position as the three left.

As soon as Tonbo recovered enough from her run, she began sparring again with Lee.

Even as the three were sitting together eating curry, Tenten was much quieter than usual. Gai, of course was doing the majority of the talking, not really taking much notice to the fact that he was mostly being ignored by both of his students.

During the two weeks since Tonbo started training with them, she and Lee had been staying behind to train well after dark. Tenten thought it was weird not having Lee around when the rest of the team ate.

They all used to eat together as a team almost every night. She didn't really mind that Lee was helping Tonbo, but it wasn't the same without him there with them.

The other thing on Tenten's mind was that none of her teammates seemed willing to discuss all the strangeness surrounding Tonbo. She knew something was off about her from the beginning, and she was sure that everyone else felt the same way. However, they all just went along with everything.

Tenten hadn't noticed Tonbo act all that much different from someone who's looking for a place to belong to. Although she doubted that Tonbo realized that.

Then again, Tenten didn't really know anything about Tonbo. She never talked much about herself and was always focused on her training. Tonbo was surprisingly distant considering the amount of time they all spent together every day.

She couldn't say that Tonbo seemed fake though. It was more like they weren't being told everything. Gai seemed to accept Tonbo pretty easily, but Tenten knew that had something to do with Kakashi being fairly close to her and Tsunade's request that he teach her taijutsu.

Neji just didn't seem to talk to the girl at all really. And though Lee had shown suspicions the first day Tonbo was introduced to them, he didn't show anything but smiles after that.

Tenten herself had chosen to keep quiet and try to be as nice as possible up until earlier today.

After they all finished eating, they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Tenten walked home by herself. Her house was in the opposite direction from Neji's, and Gai's apartment was further in town than Tenten's place.

Lee usually walked her halfway home as his house was in the same general direction as hers from the curry restaurant, which they often ate at. The cool night air was refreshing, so she didn't mind walking alone. It gave her time to think without having to drown out Gai's ramblings and it was peaceful.

* * *

After almost two hours of sparring, Tonbo could no longer will herself to stand back up. She laid on the ground with her arms and legs spread out as she breathed hard.

Neither she nor Lee had spoken the entire time. They were both waiting for the other to say something first.

Lee sat down cross-legged next to her. " Miss Tonbo?" he finally broke the silence.

"What is it Lee?" she asked as she let out a long breath and then continued panting.

"I think... I agree with Tenten," he said, hoping he wouldn't upset her.

"So do I," she replied to Lee's surprise.

"Huh? If you agree with her why did you argue with her?"

"Because," she panted. "I hadn't given it much thought before she called me out on it, and I couldn't bring myself to admit to her that she was right."

"I do not believe I fully understand."

Tonbo put an arm over her eyes and smiled. "I actually like Tenten a lot. I had no idea I was getting on her nerves. She didn't mention the way I address Gai until yesterday, and even then, she asked me about it really nicely. After I explained to her my reasoning, she seemed to drop it. But I guess it was my mistake to assume that she was suddenly okay with it."

"I see," Lee understood. "You said you like Tenten. If that is true, why did you insist on arguing with her?"

"The reason I like Tenten is because she seems to have things figured out in terms of what she wants and what she values. She defends what's important to her. I'm not like that because I'm still not sure what I want and what I value. So when she faced me and called me out, I was just being stubborn."

Lee didn't say anything.

"I know it's stupid, but watching her defending what she believes to be right made me wish I could be like that to some extent. I've had a lot of time to think in my life but not a lot of time to grow up and experience things. Without that, I don't think I can really form my own opinions yet. But I want to figure all of these things out for myself," she told him.

Lee waited before speaking again. "It is good that you have the desire to find your own values, but you have to remember that if you ever want people to respect your values, you must respect their own."

Tonbo took her arm off of her face to look at him. "Thanks Lee..." she said slowly. "You're right."

Lee smiled, stood up and offered his hand to her. "It is late now. We should eat before it gets any later."

"Okay," she accepted his hand and he helped her to her feet.

* * *

About an hour after she had left the restaurant, Tenten heard a knock on her door. Both her parents were already in bed so she went to get the door herself.

When she opened it, to her surprise she saw Neji.

"Sorry, I know it's late," he told her.

"That's okay, come on in," she stood aside to let him through the doorway.

She sat him down at the dining room table and poured him and herself some tea.

"So, what did you come here for?" she asked as she sat down.

"I came to tell you something that you might want to hear."

Tenten gave him a questioning look, "And that would be?"

"After dinner I went back to the training grounds to see if Lee was still their and I overheard something," he began.

"Okay, continue."

He went on to explain the conversation he had heard between Tonbo and Lee in great detail.

When he finished Tenten didn't know what to say first. "You were eavesdropping?" she asked.

"No, I just wanted to talk to Lee but then decided I wouldn't interrupt them," Neji defended as he crossed his arms.

Tenten smirked at him but chose not to say anything more on the subject. "Did Tonbo really say all of that?" she asked.

Neji nodded, "I believe she would be too afraid to admit this to you, but I do believe that some part of her would want you to know. I also agree that you were right. However, you may have been a bit harsh."

"Yeah, you're right," she admitted. "I think I'll talk to her tomorrow after training. Maybe I've been nitpicking at her."

"Maybe?" Neji questioned.

"Hey, don't start with me," Tenten shot back.

Neji smirked.

* * *

Early the next morning, Tsunade sat in her office alone going through paperwork. She had sent Shizune on an errand and Sakura was currently out on a mission.

She was only half awake when she heard a knock on her door. She straightened herself up and blinked forcefully a few times. "Come in!" she called.

The door opened and a man stepped in closing the door behind him.

"5th Hokage, it seems you have been keeping things from me lately. Things concerning the release of the young Tonbo Uchiha," he said.

Tsunade remained quiet.

"I hope you understand what it is you have done. Do you really know who she is and why she was put away?" he asked.

Tsunade half ignored his question out of distrust. "Danzo."

* * *

A/N: Oh no! Danzo knows! You can looked forward to his conversation with Tsunade next chapter! I also decided to put in a little fighting scene, I hope it wasn't too hard to follow. Tell me what you think! :)


	13. Secrets Revealed:Hindrance

A/N: For those of you how have been following this story as it updates, this is the right chapter. I just combined some of the first chapters that were really short, so I didn't delete anything and you don't have to go reread the story. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden! Anyone read yesterday's manga chapter...?

* * *

**Chapter 13:**

**Secrets Revealed: Hindrance**

The door opened and a man stepped in closing the door behind him.

"5th Hokage, it seems you have been keeping things from me lately. Things concerning the release of the young Tonbo Uchiha," he said.

Tsunade remained quiet.

"I hope you understand what it is you have done. Do you really know who she is and why she was put away?" he asked.

Tsunade half ignored his question out of distrust. "Danzo."

"Princess Tsunade, I have been aware of Uchiha's release for quite some time now. I want you to be aware of what it is you have done."

Tsunade held up her hand, "First, I want you to explain why you took so long to confront me about this. If you knew, why did you wait to come here? I let her out six weeks ago."

"It took time to put all the pieces together," he began. "None of my men saw you release her. Since I had believed you didn't know about her existence, I never concerned my men with watching the entrance. The first signs we picked up on were the ANBU members who were taking care of her walking around town, filling out job applications."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes. She had been careless to think that all of those women would go unnoticed by a man such as him.

"Logically you would have brought her to the hospital, but I had no way to confirm that. You surely would never be so naïve as to put her in an ordinary room and treat her like every other patient."

Tsunade momentarily wondered if there was an underlying insult in his words.

"I deduced that it would be unnecessary to have my men staked out in front of the hospital as it would take time for the girl to recover enough to leave and there would be evidence of her having left as soon as she did so. Three weeks went by until the first confirmed sighting of her was with Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. It appears they went shopping and ate lunch together before Uchiha went back to the hospital."

_I never authorized that! _Tsunade thought to herself. She closed her eyes in a moment of frustration but held her composure.

"It was that night that some part of the Uchiha's hidden power awakened within her momentarily."

Tsunade straightened herself up abruptly before blurting out her train of thought in slight urgency, "So you felt that?"

Danzo stared at Tsunade with a blank expression on his face. _Darn!_ Tsunade relaxed her back a bit as she realized that her actions might have given away the fact that she, herself was worried about what the girl might do.

However, Danzo paid no mind to Tsunade's sudden outburst and continued on casually. "I, myself was not in the area at the time and was astounded when I heard that my men had been so paralyzed by fear, they could not even come to alert me. That is the only reason I did not show up on the scene."

"So you were told afterwards, and just their descriptions of the sensation they felt were enough for you to figure out what it was?" Tsunade questioned.

"When you've felt something so penetrating once, you do not soon forget," he gave as an answer.

"I see," Tsunade said shortly in order to allow him to continue on without telling him to do so.

"It was after that when I ordered my men to stake out the hospital, which soon proved fruitful. My men reported seeing you and Kakashi Hatake go to the intelligence center and enter a sound proof room. Although they could not hear what was being said, I had no need for them to. I knew that the girl didn't die and there would only be one reason why you would bring Kakashi of all people to a place such as that," he stated matter-of-factly.

Tsunade frowned at his response. She had indeed made the right decision in going there, but with a man like Danzo, it didn't even matter.

"Four days after that was when she was spotted leaving the hospital. She was speaking with Sakura Haruno and there was mention that Uchiha would go 'home'. It wasn't difficult to decipher where 'home' was."

"So your men followed her home?" Tsunade stated more than asked.

"Not yet, it wasn't until early the next morning that my men actually found her in the Uchiha district," Danzo corrected simply.

"Oh really? Why is that?" Tsunade was a bit surprised.

"I'll get to that later," was Danzo's response.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms defiantly but did not verbally express any objections.

"The girl was found on the rooftop of the house previously own by Fugaku Uchiha. I've had 24 hour surveillance on her since then. And as if it wasn't clear enough, it became painfully obvious yesterday when I was given these." He pulled some papers out of the sleeve of his kimono that were each folded in thirds as if ready to be put into envelopes.

He began his approach to Tsunade's desk in order to hand them to her.

"What are those?"

* * *

**6:05am**

Kakashi walked up onto Tonbo's porch and reached to knock on her door. Before his hand could make contact, Tonbo swung the door open but didn't even give him a glance.

"You're late," she said in a flat tone. "Which means I'm late," she added as an after thought as she let herself fall onto her butt to put her shoes on in front of the doorway.

"I brought you breakfast," Kakashi said as he watched her put a shoe on the wrong foot and then take it back off.

"Thanks," she said as she stood up while pulling the back of her second shoe over her heel. "I'll eat on the way," she told him after finally looking up.

She reached out for one of the rice balls he had with him, but he moved his hands further away from her.

Tonbo blinked once as she was taken aback before frustration flooded her. "Kakashi, I really need to go! Gai will make me run extra laps around Konoha, or do extra vertical push-ups, or even do vertical push-ups while walking on my hands around Konoha!" she said all in one hurried breath.

"If you're already late, a few more minutes won't make a difference. I have something else for you," he pulled the three envelopes he had out from under his arm. "I was asked to give these to you and was told they were important."

Kakashi then handed them over to Tonbo as she sighed. "What are they?" she asked when she noticed the outsides of the envelopes were blank.

"I wasn't told. Open them," came his reply.

She tore each of them open one by one. "Hospital bill... electricity bill... water bill." Tonbo groaned, "I guess you don't really know what adults have to deal with until you deal with those things yourself."

* * *

"They're all just bills?" Tsunade looked up from them.

"Copies, actually. The only reason I ended up with them is because the hospital didn't know where to send the medical bill, and both the electrical and water companies didn't know who to charge. If you really wanted to conceal her whereabouts, you should have put more effort into planning accordingly," Danzo spoke harshly.

Tsunade's frown only deepened. "So then, back to why your men didn't find her until the morning after she left the hospital," she changed the subject.

Danzo glanced out the window briefly before turning his gaze back onto the princess before him. "Very well then. Like I said earlier, the first confirmed sighting of her from my men was where Haruno and Yamanaka took her shopping. During that time, although Uchiha never noticed, the other two had. They both repeatedly looked over their shoulders and were both able to sense them despite my mens' training."

Tsunade hid her smirk behind her hands which she folded in front of her face.

"Neither girl took any action against my men though. The day ended without conflict. However, that was not the case the day Uchiha left the hospital."

_There was a fight? _Tsunade wondered.

"For various reasons, I decided it would be best if I only had one man tail her..."

Sakura walked out of the front doors of the hospital with Tonbo Uchiha by her side. They stopped before the road and exchanged conversation.

"Tonbo, where will you go?" Sakura was curious.

"Well home of course!"

"Well then tell your brothers I said hi, okay?" Sakura smiled.

"Of course," she confirmed. "I better get going, I'll see you later Sakura!" Tonbo ran off in the direction of her house waving back at Sakura.

"Yeah, I'll see you soon!" Sakura called after her, waving.

As soon as Tonbo was out of earshot, Sakura turned her attention upward, into the trees across the street.

"I don't know why you're following Tonbo... but if you don't go in the opposite direction she went, I'll be forced to come after you," she stated warningly.

There was silence for a while and no movement was made.

"I'll warn you, I'm not the type of person to be subtle during a fight. You don't want to cause a scene, do you?"

There was another moment of silence before there was a flash of movement so fast, if Sakura had not been watching that place intently, she wouldn't have been able to notice it. Whoever the man was, Sakura was now satisfied that he had gone away from where Tonbo was going.

She turned on her heel to head back into the hospital. She stopped right before entering the doors to say one last thing.

"Keep on running," she said quietly. And then she went inside.

_So that's what happened, _Tsunade thought after listening to Danzo reiterate what he was told by the man he had follow Tonbo.

"She wasn't seen again until later that day when she went into town. My ROOT member followed her while she went grocery shopping. Perhaps it was by chance, but she also happened to go into the Yamanaka Flower Shop where Ino Yamanaka happened to be working at the time," he continued.

"Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower Shop! May I he—, oh hey Tonbo!"

Tonbo turned around to see Ino, much to her surprise. "Ino?"

"How many will you want?" Ino asked.

Tonbo thought about it. "Three," she said.

Ino smiled and took three dahlias over to the front desk and trimmed the stems with her scissors. She wrapped them up and tied a bow. "It's on the house," she handed the flowers to Tonbo.

"You don't have to do that, I don't mind pay—"

Ino cut her off, "Tonbo, you couldn't even force me to let you pay. It's called a favor, and it is okay to accept it."

Tonbo smiled, "Thank you very much!"

"I'll see you later!" Ino called as Tonbo walked to the door.

"Yeah, see you later," Tonbo waved before leaving.

Ino frowned and walked towards the door. She opened it and looked outside. _They're moving!_ she noticed and she quickly sprang into action, the door slamming shut behind her.

She formed a hand seal and aimed the window her hands made. "Mind Destruction Jutsu!"

A body seemed to trip and then disappear behind a rooftop. Ino panted loudly as she tried to recover from the strain. _Guess I haven't quite mastered that technique yet after all._

"It only took that much for him to loose Uchiha in the crowd."

"So Ino's been working on a new technique? Sakura will want to hear about that," Tsunade said mostly to herself.

Danzo chose to completely ignore her and continue on with his story. "Then in the evening, she was sighted asleep in the cemetery. The man following her had to wait a few hours before she was woken up by Shikamaru Nara."

He sat down facing her. "I'm Shikamaru Nara," he stated.

She inwardly sighed, "My name is Tonbo."

"So then what are you doing out here anyway?" he asked without being sensitive.

"Just visiting, I guess I lost track of time and fell asleep."

"Do you want me to walk you home?" he asked. Despite his overall lazy and uncaring appearance, he still seemed genuine.

"No thank you, but I really should be getting home," she got up and started off in the direction of her house.

_If she gets hurt on the way to her house, I'll probably regret not chasing after her. But I just sat down, getting up would be so... troublesome. _He sat there thinking.

As he was doing so, his shadow was slowly creeping across the grass and up a tree. He caught the stalker in his shadow so that the man couldn't move.

He turned to look at the name on the grave out of curiosity. When he read the name, his eyes widened.

_No, it can't be. That's... impossible. _He leaped up to his feet and gave the man in the tree a piece of advice.

"If you follow either of us, I'll consider you a threat." He then released his jutsu and dashed in the direction she headed.

Tsunade couldn't help but smile with pride in the three of them. "It sounds to me like your men need more training."

"I'm already dealing with them," Danzo stated without a hint of mercy.

"I see," Tsunade replied.

"Early that morning, she was seen on the rooftop. She sat their alone until Kakashi Hatake showed up. Of course it was expected that he, being a former member of the ANBU black ops, would notice anyone in the vicinity no matter who they were."

"I'm glad even you believe that," Tsunade put in, but was promptly ignored.

"For the next few days following that, he made sure that there was someone with Uchiha at all times to keep her follower at a distance. He even staked out her house at night. After a few days of watching her watcher, I believe he figured out that the man wouldn't do anything to her. So he started going back to his apartment at night again."

_So Kakashi was spending so much time with her because he knew she was being followed? He even refused a mission that week, _Tsunade remembered.

"After that, he still made sure she had someone with her during the day. I can only assume that his purpose was to make sure that she, herself didn't notice that someone was following her."

"If Kakashi knew someone was following her all this time, why didn't he tell me?" Tsunade mumbled under her breath.

"I would think that to be obvious," Danzo got Tsunade's attention back. "It's because he couldn't be sure whether it was you who sent the man to follow her or not."

Tsunade was taken aback, but said nothing in response.

"I think it's fairly obvious that even you have doubts of whether you can trust her or not. You're questioning your decision to let her out."

Tsunade bit her lower lip.

"Everyone else had similar thoughts as Kakashi. They seem to have had a silent agreement between anyone who noticed, that they would not discuss nor alert Tonbo Uchiha about all the odd things surrounding her. Everyone is just waiting to see if anyone will take action. They are all still trying to form opinions of the Uchiha girl for themselves," Danzo explained.

_Damn!_ was Tsunade's only thought.

"Others who noticed include Maito Gai, and Neji Hyuga with his byakugan. The only people who still haven't seemed to notice are Tenten, Rock Lee, and Tonbo Uchiha herself. I believe it's probable that everyone besides Kakashi is trying to decide whether it's a good thing that someone is following her or a bad thing. Until they decide, I doubt you'll hear anything from them."

* * *

Tonbo hung her head trying to think of a way to come up with enough money to pay all her bills. Her shoulders slumped with the further realization that there was no way she could pay off all her bills anytime soon.

Kakashi took notice of her demeanor. "Tonbo, don't you have to get going?"

Tonbo immediately straightened herself back up. "Yes, I—" she turned towards the door and then turned back being unable to decide what to do as she was in a hurry.

"Here, how about this." Kakashi took the bills from her and traded them for a rice ball. "Now go on, I'll put these on the table for you.

Tonbo smiled, "Thanks Kakashi." She started to run off to training ground three where she knew Team Gai would be waiting for her.

Kakashi turned to go inside but stopped to give a last second, knowing glance at the trees.

* * *

Tsunade gave a sigh, "So... what did you want to tell me about her? What's the real reason she was put there?"

"So you are interested after all. Will my response effect your opinion about her?" Danzo asked already knowing what her answer would likely be.

"That depends on what your response is," she stated firmly.

"Of course," Danzo gave a nod of understanding. "There are many factors that went into this decision. I personally wanted to have her join the ROOT program. The third immediately objected of course. The only way we could convince the third was by telling him it was for her own protection."

"Was that a lie?" Tsunade asked.

"Not entirely. The fact that it would protect her was merely something extra. It protected her not only from being killed or kidnapped, but also from being used as a tool. It is true that if people had found out about her abilities, she would have easily become a target and a prize, but that knowledge could also have easily lead to war."

"War?" Tsunade echoed.

"Bringing her into the equation of power between nations would have upset the balance that has been so carefully fabricated. Konoha would not only have the nines tail but also someone with the power to control others."

Tsunade nodded her head. Everything did make sense to far, but she did not like where this was leading.

"I wanted to use the girl's power for the sake of the village. With her power, she wouldn't need to kill anyone. She could control the minds of others, and the best part being that there is no way for a person to tell that there mind was ever being controlled even after she stops controlling them. If you have control of the head of the beast, the rest of the body follows. The only people she would need to control are the Kages."

Tsunade was shocked at how easily he could say such things. "And how do you know so much about her power?"

"That's simple. The women who were living there with her weren't just former members of the ANBU. A couple were medical ninjas, biologists, physicists, one was a chakra properties specialist and there was also a historian. None of them were there just to take care of her, they were each handpicked by myself to study her. I had them learn as much as possible about her," he explained.

"But one of the women came to my office and told me about an incident when she was eight. She acted like she didn't understand what had happened to her," Tsunade subconsciously raised her voice.

"I had instructed each of them that if someone were to come to release her, one of them should tell whoever came that story as a warning of her power without actually revealing what her power is."

"Then did you lock her away to create a chance to study her because the third Hokage wouldn't allow you to turn her into your tool?!" Tsunade sent him a glare.

"No, one of the biggest reasons was because she killed a Leaf shinobi," Danzo stayed as calm as ever.

"What?" Tsunade couldn't control the slight hitch in her voice.

"The circumstances in which it happened are unclear and there was no way to prove whether she had probable cause to kill the man or not. However, she killed him nonetheless. She claims to not remember what happened that night."

"So then... is she really dangerous?"

"That all depends on her mental state. Though I believe there couldn't be a better person to watch over her than Kakashi Hatake."

Tsunade lowered her gaze slightly and refused to speak.

"She could be perfectly safe, or she could be deceiving you along with Kakashi. Just keep in mind that if she does decide to turn against us, I don't see a way we could stop her," Danzo spoke with finality.

He turned to take his leave but Tsunade called out to him. "Wait. Do you know where her birth certificate is?"

He looked back at her over his shoulder. "Yes, it's among the other classified documents." He paused, "Are you wanting to know who her biological parents are?"

"I assume you already have that information. And I also assume that you won't tell me their names."

"You would be correct," he stated simply and left out the door.

* * *

A/N: Ehhhhh! So much dialogue! Please Review! :D


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